MERC
by blackdeath0001
Summary: Before the Spartan II project the UNSC had another special Unit. They were called the Marines Emergancy Retalliation Corp. They were called M.E.R.C
1. I Meet the MERC's

Enemy forces mentioned

Kig-yar -- Jackal

Sangheili -- Elite

Unggoy -- Grunt

Yannmee -- Drone (Bugger)

Lekgolo -- Hunter

Ships and vehicles mentioned

UNSC

\\-- Destroyer --/

A destroyer classed battleship is not necessarily the strongest in the UNSC arsenal, although they have decent attack they somewhat lack the necessary ability to move around in a battle as well as the less armored and substantially weaker Frigates.

\\-- Frigate --/

The most common large scale battleship in the UNSC would be the Frigate.

Although unable to take as much punishment as the Destroyer class, and causing less damage, they are the cheapest and quickest UNSC Battleship which play's a substantial role in the actual battles.

\\-- Halcyon --/

These are without a doubt the largest, strongest, best armored, and expensive ships under UNSC command. Unfortunately their use has been substantially diminished due to the speed problem. The Destroyer is a smaller class of this ship, with a smaller gun.

\\-- Long-Sword --/

The most used fighter against covenant in space battles. Their use is defined by their ability to be adjusted to carry up to ten personnel and their Fighter-Bomber status.

They are a larger and better equipped version of the UNSC Short-Sword

\\-- Short-Sword --/

a small Arial vehicle mainly used for reconnaissance and light attack. Can carry bombs, holds one to two 50 cal machine guns and are highly maneuverable.

Prologue

In the year 2439 the Marine Emergency Recon Corp. (normally referred to as M.E.R.C) was founded. It was a special unit, the original project Orion. Although lesser known, M.E.R.C had a total unit of 300 U.S, Australian, British, Mexican, Japanese and Chinese soldiers after their augmentations, which were split into 30 ten personnel units. Each was put through a gruelling training project that put the following Orion project to shame.

Although the augmentations that the M.E.R.C's received stopped them from using the MJOLNIR Mark II armour that was present a decade later, they were skilled enough to not need them or the other SPARTAN related armours of the time, but were subsequently becoming obsolete.

The project was continued for almost a century, and M.E.R.C was conditioned and became a veteran unit, no new people had been recruited, and instead the original M.E.R.C's were kept in Cryostasis until needed. As an added bonus their existence was still unknown to the general public, but their feats were well known.

Thirteen of the M.E.R.C units died in active service, and were placed into undisclosed graves on Earth. No names were written, and instead their nicknames were engraved.

In the year of 2517, the Spartan II project begun. M.E.R.C got an amazing budget cut and was eventually scrapped.

All seventeen of the remaining M.E.R.C units were moved to the UNSC marines, but still kept their titles as ONI Special Operatives, but were criticised by their fellow Marines for having a naval Rank instead.

After the fall of Harvest on October 7 2525, (the beginning of the war with the Covenant) the M.E.R.C units were split into three main teams, each with a code name for the said unit, the first was coded Black-Hound, the second was labelled Green-Boar, and the final unit was labelled Grey-Fox. Black-Hound's unit specialised in Engineering and demolitions, Green-Boar was a vehicle oriented unit, and finally, Grey-Fox was the covert unit.

One year later a prelude to the sanctioned Magnetic Automatic Cannon, or M.A.C gun was created. The T.A.T.R or Tactical Anti Technical Rifle, but they were known to jam often, had a small clip and were a very heavy weapon so therefore unsuitable for the average marine. The later versions of the weapon became stronger but shorter clipped beam weapons and eventually the Spartan Laser was created by mixing the technology of the M.E.R.C unit into the Covenants more superior tech. The T.A.T.R-14 quickly however became a Favourite weapon for the majority of M.E.R.C units, as it was not only anti technical… it was anti everything.

The original M.E.R.C's who labelled 300 to begin with, were shipped to the front lines and over the years that followed eventually dwindled down to fourteen. Four of which were wounded as such that they could no longer fight. And another six were moved to another undisclosed Project.

All that was left of the three teams were re-integrated into M.E.R.C Unit Grey-Fox.

On the eve of 2527 the remaining four left the UNSC and in junction with a number of other disheartened marines, created a small private army, which became known as The Lost Boy's, or TLB for short, which was thought by them that the UNSC had the wrong ideas in fighting the Covenant.

Only three years later and the TLB disbanded after an epic failure to capture a Covenant cruiser, the Ex M.E.R.C's became mercenaries, and were hired on numerous occasions by the UNSC, ONI, and some private contractors.

As the war against the Covenant got worse, and the UNSC got more and more disorganised the Spartans their employer used started to dwindle as they had and so they were hired more, and more, and more…

The year is 2530, and now the M.E.R.C's have a new enemy.

Anarchy…

Chapter 1

Meet The M.E.R.C's

_Ziizika stood in a yellow wheat field, children were playing in the grass, as a figure walked towards them, it turned towards her, and what she saw was a horribly burnt man, as his blistered and charred fingers reached towards Ziizika, and the sky turned from adoring blue, into hating red as the planet began to be glassed. The children began to scream as her vision began to blur_

Ziizika awoke with a start. She had been having that same dream for weeks now, so it was no surprise she had it again tonight. Gradually she took in her surroundings; she was in the pilot's seat of the experimental Long-sword fighter they had… borrowed.

The auto pilot light was still flashing, Ex Lieutenant-Major Roger, sat in the chair behind her, sharpening his Ka-bar knife with a Whetstone. Roger was her commanding officer, also the leader of Grey-Fox. He looked the whole part with his fatigue cap pointing backwards and Short sleeved Jacket that had been passed down since the war on terrorism in 1999 and still looked as new as it did back then.

Without looking up from his blade he asked "did you have a good sleep Ziizika?"

She nodded; Roger put away his whetstone into a pouch above his blades sheathe and started to fiddle around with his blade, doing a few tricks. When another guy walked from behind him, Roger threw the knife into the air, and the mystery man caught the tip on his index finger, and balanced it back to its owner.

"Morning Silence" said Roger, taking his Ka-Bar back, and putting it in its sheathe,

"Morning sir" said Silence in his Australian accent as he seated himself into the chair opposite Roger, his black, ponytail swinging in a comical way as he sat down, and although his choice of hairstyle was odd, the large scar he has that ran from above his right blue eye to underneath his nose didn't look the least bit funny.

"ETA?" he asked, producing a deck of overused playing cards from his pocket. Roger slammed his fist into the wall to his left, and down came a table between them.

"Four quarters of an hour, what say we play hearts today?" replied Roger, taking the deck and dealing them out for hearts.

"How's Jackal?" asked Ziizika, as she dragged another of the chairs over to the table and joined in the game, her heavy Mexican accent lingering in the cockpit, Roger passing an ace and two queens her way.

"Still asleep, I don't know how he does it, it's not natural he amount of sleep that guy gets." Silence said as he slapped a two of spades to the centre, which was followed by a three of diamonds from Ziizika, and a ten of diamonds by Roger, who took the cards and wrote the points.

Roger looked at Ziizika, trying to stare beyond the poker face of deep set hazel eyes and hair more gold than blonde; she smiled at him, and looked at Silence who had the turn.

Three quarters of an hour passed and Ziizika was about to serve again when the auto pilot started beeping the fifteen minute mark.

"Ziizika, Silence, go get suited up, I'm going to go wake up Jackal, meet you back here in five ok?"

Both Silence and Ziizika nodded and headed towards the back room which they had converted into an armoury. Ziizika started to rummage through what they had, which wasn't much in terms of fire power, anything they had was outdated by at least fifty years, apart from a few crates of Battle Rifles and some Mark IV fragmentation grenades. In the end she settled with a T.A.T.R-14, and a Dirk for close combat. While she was grabbing some C4 and placing it safely into a pouch on the opposite side of her Remote detonators, Silence was tapping on the side of his V.I.R.A panel which was sparking between green and red. Then screwing on a silencer to a scoped 9mm and placing it into his waist sheathe. Next to his own Ka-Bar, he had a duplicate one on the other side, and a Bowie on his back, just below his left shoulder. You could tell that he wasn't out to a dinner party.

Ten minutes later, and everyone was suited up. Roger sat in the pilot's chair, manually landing the Long-sword onto the semi-glassed landscape.

There to meet them were three ONI staff, two male and one female, who was standing in the middle.

Each holding a complicated looking suitcase and each dressed like the rejects of _men in black_.

As three of the M.E.R.C's walked towards the ONI staff, green dots appeared on their chests.

"Hello MERC unit Grey-Fox, how nice it is to see you again, and especially you Roger" said the female in a British accent, as she took a step forward,

"Can't say the feelings mutual Katharine, do you mind calling your boys off? I know from experience how trigger happy they get these days" replied Roger, as he motioned to the laser sights pointing at his vital organs on his chest and head.

"Sorry, it's a necessary precaution on my behalf, here's the first payment, and the jobs inside with the cash." Said Katharine as she handed the suitcase over,

"How much are we talking about?" asked Roger as he let the suitcase fall to his side.

"Twenty mill, two million first payment and you get the rest upon completion. Its high risk"

Roger Whistled at the digits, what frequency do we call for confirmation?" asked Roger, his shoes crunching the glass underneath him

"We'll be in contact; you know the drill, all hush, hush. Never been here, I don't exist and all that." Replied Katharine, as she motioned for the other two MIB impersonators behind her to hand over their suitcases.

"Has anyone ever told you that working with you reminds me of those old 007 movies?" said Ziizika as she was handed one of the suitcases, her T.A.T.R-14 hanging loosely in her opposite hand.

"Not really no," replied Katherine

"We'll be in touch, Tata"


	2. II It's a living

Prologue

Chapter 2

It's a living

"_**We'll be in contact; you know the drill, all hush, hush. Never been here, I don't exist and all that." Replied Katharine, as she motioned for the other two MIB impersonators behind her to hand over their suitcases.**_

"_**Has anyone ever told you that working with you reminds me of those old 007 movies?" said Ziizika as she was handed one of the suitcases, her T.A.T.R-14 hanging loosely in her opposite hand.**_

"_**Not really no," replied Katherine**_

"_**We'll be in touch, Tata"**_

_/ The following Document is classified, and is deniable by any or all major countries of the UNSC._

_/_

_/_

_/_

_Project Napalm_

_This mission is designated High Risk_

_On December 5__th__ 2531 the planet Blitzkrieg was captured by the Covenant. And for some reason yet unknown, the planet was left virtually untouched. The marine forces stationed there however were captured. Among them is one Corporal Gregory. _

_Corporal Gregory holds important information which is hidden in a codex inside his neural lace. We will not divulge the nature of the said information, but least to say, it could be the difference between victory or failure in the war. _

_Current Intel puts the Covenant holding Corporal Gregory still on the planet. _

_The Mission if accepted is to either _

_Bring back Corporal Gregory alive_

_Bring back the backup of Corporal Gregory's NL_

_Destroy the information to ensure the Covenant don't find it_

_Option c is a final resort only, and the payment will be halved if conformation of its destruction is sent to us._

_ Signed Katharine Mallard _

_/_

_/_

_/_

_ End Transmit _

Roger looked around the room, the three suitcases lay on the table they were playing hearts on only a half hour ago, containing two million American dollars in small bills,

"Do we take it?" he asked. But he already knew the answer,

So when they got the coded message from ONI headquarters they knew what to say.

"We'll do it" said Roger over the com-unit, and then ended the Communiqué.

"I just can't get my head around the digits, twenty million dollars. That could buy a hell of a lot of cheeseburgers" said Jackal, patting his stomach

"trust you Jackal, always thinking about your gut, if your not careful you'll get fat, your well on your way there now" said Ziizika, poking Jackal in the stomach for good measure as she went to polish her T.A.T.R-14.

"For your information its ninety percent muscle" replied Jackal, while flexing his biceps, in front of everyone, Silence took out his cards again, and started playing solitaire.

"That's a pretty big ten percent you got there then mate" Said Silence,

Roger looked at the two of the bickering, and decided to stop it,

"You're both going on like a married couple here, calm down, and Jackal? No more cheeseburgers." He said in one breath. Then he took out his Ka-Bar and whetstone again and started sharpening the already paper thin edge.

"Space travel gets pretty boring when you have nothing to do eh?" said Silence, finishing his solitaire. And grabbing a pair of handcuffs,

"Hey Ziizika, could you do me up, Jackal you can time me" Said Silence, jiggling the handcuffs at Ziizika

Several hours later, and they were almost at the Blitzkrieg system. They started getting suited up again, Silence with his four blades, silenced and scoped 9mm, with a new addition to his arsenal, another T.A.T.R-14, but again with silencer and scope. While Jackal was deciding between a selection of BR's and the T.A.T.R-14's like the rest.

Roger had already chosen his two SMG's which were on clips to his legs, two M9 Magnums and the Ka-bar knife which was attached to the sheathe on his shin. But instead of heading straight for the planet, they decided to call in some favours.

"Alright, first Port of Call?" asked Jackal, as he paced.

"What about that S.C.O you dated?" suggested Silence, as he sat in front of a yellowed address book; this was surprising as he was the supposed Tech Head.

"Dude, these are people on other planets to earth, you know how we were exiled from that system, after the incident on Venus" said Ziizika, as she noticed the notebook.

"Yeah, thanks for that Jackal" said Roger, who was fiddling with a NAAV (Neural Aiming Assistance Visor)

"Hey! She said she was eighteen!" Said Jackal Defensively and Ziizika gave him a disgusted look.

"Yeah, right" said Roger, and Silence added insult to injury by mimicking the girl.

"Oh Mr. Jackal, what a bad, bad boy you are-" Jackal blushed at Silences portrayal,

"You sound just like her,"

Everyone laughed, even Jackal then went back to the task at hand.

"Well I suppose I could talk to Vice Admiral Nelson." Roger said as he scratched his head.

"Wait a second, isn't that the Cabrón… You mean the guy who we stole this Long-sword from? For some reason I don't think he'll be putting the kettle on for us." said Ziizika quickly, obviously worried.

"Yeah, And now were on the receiving end of twenty million dollars. I think he'll forgive us, don't you?" said Roger, making limp wristed hand movements with the Ka-bar in his hand, which Jackal found funny for some reason.

"Okay, your funeral," replied Ziizika, changing coordinates.

Thirty minutes later

They had to do a complete 180 to get into the Sara system. And when they broke Slip space they ran right into a humongous battle, twelve Destroyer class and two Helicon class were engaging eight Covenant cruisers and six Burners. Just as they entered the system they were met by fighter fire. And they watched in the second they arrived, twelve Destroyers were turned into ten and a half.

"Swing left," said Roger, as he noticed the bleeping light, which signified they had been locked on. Ziizika was at the controls and immediately complied. Unfortunately it took a quarter of a second for the inertial dampeners to kick in, and Roger almost fell over.

"Two. Their behind us, what should I do?" said Ziizika, not showing the least amount of worry. Even though she felt like she was going throw up.

"This things experimental, experiment" Roger said in reply.

The ship did a double barrel roll, went straight up, and ended right behind the two.

"Guns aren't firing, oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck." Ziizika said, now she was showing fear. Silence ran through the hallway, and slid the door closed after him.

"What the hell does he think he's doing?" asked Jackal, buckling himself into one of the chairs. Roger looked at him weird,

"No idea, but-" Ziizika cut Roger off

"We got bigger problems at the moment, their shooting at us!"

Fizz, fizz, fizz…

"WHAT THE FUCK?? We should have been killed by those shots, not even those Destroyer class battleships over there have shielding!" Said Jackal, who was in a fit of happy hysteria

"Experimental" replied Roger

"We're out of time; shields aren't so useful when you can't shoot back! And those shields will only last a little while longer"

"Working on that" came a voice over the Intercom. "when I say so, blow exit Airlock 3"

"Okay" said Ziizika, as she did some more spins and turns to avoid being hit by any more shots, knowing that when Silence asked you to do something, it usually ended well. And then, from the Intercom came the words she had hoped against, "BLOW IT!!"

The Long-sword did a triple spin, and POP… TSSSSS…

And from over the intercom they heard Silence screaming

"YEE FUCKING HAA MOTHERFUCKERS" as they watched, he was standing in a full Space suit, Riding on top an old warthog like a surfboard… riddled with C4.

"I always thought he was nuts, and I was right, completely bloody mental." said Jackal, watching through the Vid panel. As their ship continued to avoid the enemy fire, taking hits every so often, that just fizzed onto the shield.

And then the warthog slammed onto the front the first attacker, in the distance, three Covie cruisers and one of the burners were now pieces of flying rubble, and Half a Battleship was flying straight towards another of the Burners Kamikaze style, Testament to Human faith.

Silence bent down, and un-strapped his feet from the warthog, as he was being flown at G forces most would die from, regardless of the inertial dampeners or the relativity of space, then did a double flip off, and only just landing on the second in time to activate his magnetic boots, and with a plasma grenade in hand, he activated it, and threw it onto the rear engine, then jumped out into the void of space.

" I wonder how those Covie bastards fare against twenty three tons of human engineered C4 eh? " Said Silence over the intercom, and took out a wireless detonator as the first plasma grenade exploded, causing the Fighter to spin out of control.


	3. III Vice Admiral Nelson

Prologue

Chapter 3

Vice Admiral Nelson

"_**Working on that" came a voice over the Intercom. "when I say so, blow exit Airlock 3"**_

_**"Okay" said Ziizika, as she did some more spins and turns to avoid being hit by any more shots, and then. "BLOW IT!!"**_

_**And the Long-sword did a triple spin, and then POP… TSSSSS… **_

_**And over the intercom they heard Silence screaming**_

_**"YEE FUCKING HAA MOTHERFUCKERS" as they watched, he was standing in a full Space suit, Riding on top an old warthog like a surfboard… riddled with C4.**_

"I always thought he was nuts, and I was right, completely bloody mental." said Jackal, watching through the Vid panel. As their ship continued to avoid the enemy fire, taking hits every so often, that just fizzed onto the shield.

And then the warthog slammed onto the front the first attacker, in the distance, three Covie cruisers and one of the burners were now pieces of flying rubble, and Half a Battleship was flying straight towards another of the Burners Kamikaze style, Testament to Human faith.

Silence bent down, and un-strapped his feet from the warthog, as he was being flown at G forces most would die from, regardless of the inertial dampeners or the relativity of space, then did a double flip off, and only just landing on the second in time to activate his magnetic boots, and with a plasma grenade in hand, he activated it, and threw it onto the rear engine, then jumped out into the void of space.

" I wonder how those Covie bastards fare against twenty three tons of human engineered C4 eh? " Said Silence over the intercom, and took out a wireless detonator as the first plasma grenade exploded, causing the Fighter to spin out of control.

To Silence's left he saw one of the covenant Cruisers firing at the Humans Helicon Class's. So he waited until it was in range of the Enemy Fighters and blew it.

Bang wouldn't suit what happened. You can't hear in space for one, and for two it's too small a word. When the fighter exploded, the core overcharged to increase the explosion tenfold, and ten times bang makes for another maths question.

Covenant Cruiser divided by two…

The other fighters were busy fighting the Marine Long-swords, but Vice Admiral Nelson was a master Tactician, and was giving his enemy a run for their money. Only a minute later three covenant cruisers were left, and they were flailing in space, attempting to regroup.

"do you mind picking me up now? " said Silence, as he floated past some wreckage he had created.

"Silence, you are one crazy Son of a bitch, we're on our way"

"yeah, well, just be careful eh? Remember for every balance there is a counterbalance" said Silence

"are you worried we'll miss? "

"no, I'm worried you'll hit me and I'll go flying, I've seen it happen before, just get me inside alright? Preferably with all my limbs intact"

"Unclassified Long-sword fighter, this is the Destroyer _Queen Anne_ what is your current Status" The M.E.R.C's had expected them to call, but not so quickly, they thought they had at least another hour.

"this is the Long-sword Fighter 09844207, just picking ourselves up" Said Roger over the Com-unit.

"09844207 you are classified a stolen Vessel, Surrender and you will not be harmed"

"Awe crap" said Jackal,

"They've jammed internal Communications,

Silence closed the Airlock behind him he'd just finished re-pressurization, and turned; to meet an array of weapons pointed towards him which were being held by the toughest, trigger happy looking marines he'd ever seen.

"Uh, obviously we've met before, who are you again?" said Silence stupidly, and he was shoved towards wall, and disarmed, then shoved through the hallway into the cockpit.  
Silence heard a whack,

"Hey, I thought that you O.D.S.T guys were supposed to be tough, I barely felt that" said Jackal, and as one of the Marines gave him a firm fist to the face he spat out blood.

"Who's in charge here?" asked one of the Marines

"What now?" Roger asked as noticed Silence fiddling around with his handcuffs.

"Vice Admiral Nelson wants to see you" replied the Marine,

Before the Marine holding Silence knew what hit him, he was flying through the air, after which Silence took the wrist of another marine and jerked him around, took out the pistol from the Marines holster and pointed it at their leader while still holding the guy in an arm and foot brace. To which all ten of the Marines moved their sights to his vital Organs, which were covered by the Marine he was holding.

"They call me Silence, What about you?"

"Lieutenant Kakadu"

"Great, now that we've been formally introduced, I would be ever so obliged if you would take me to this Nelson guy. And please don't piss me off; I'm hypo on adrenalin after blowing up a cruiser in space while riding on top of a LAAG classed warthog covered in C4."

"Ah Roger, How nice it is that we meet again" said the vice admiral from the command chair in the centre of the bridge's control room.

"Can't say the feelings mutual, last time we met you tried to blow me up." replied Roger, as he paced around the chair with the green laser sights from the dozen Marines pointed at his chest.

"Let bygones be bygones eh? It was only a small bomb…"

"Last I checked a twenty five kilo tonne nuclear bomb wasn't exactly small."

"And then you stole my ship."

Roger noticed one of the Medics moving slowly out the door,

"Don't mind them, we have one on every floor, Vu there is the one for our bridge."

"Don't worry? There would be lots of wounded in the infirmary by now, and-"

The bickering went on for quite some while, until Ziizika shoved in and said

"We need your help" to which the Vice Admiral.

"Explain"

Ziizika was about to tell him everything when Roger cut in with "The things we do for help"


	4. IV Help

Prologue

Chapter 4

Help

"_**Let bygones be bygones eh? It was only a small bomb…" **_

_**"Last I checked a twenty five kilo tonne nuclear bomb wasn't exactly small."**_

_**"And then you stole my ship."**_

_**Roger noticed one of the Medics moving slowly out the door, **_

_**"Don't mind them, we have one on every floor, Vu there is the one for our bridge."**_

_**"Don't worry? There would be lots of wounded in the infirmary by now, and-"**_

_**The bickering went on for quite some while, until Ziizika shoved in and said**_

_**"We need your help" to which the Vice Admiral. **_

_**"Explain"**_

_/ The following Document is classified, and is deniable by any or all major countries of the UNSC._

_/_

_/_

_/_

_Project Gift Wrap_

_This mission is designated medium risk_

_Since the fall of Harvest, our forces have been spread thin throughout the Galaxy. And with all of the movement, a number of people have gone missing. Adam Davison is one of many. The only major problem he is currently causing is anarchy, _

_But we have received information about him gaining a foothold on large military prototype gun instalment, a M.A.C. gun in the Sara system. While we could assault the area ourselves the costs would be too great, and so we have decided a small task force would be best._

_Success in this mission will allow our forces to move into areas in which we may assist other units_

_The mission if accepted is to either_

_Assassinate Adam Davison_

_Capture Adam Davison_

_Destroy M.A.C. Instillation_

_Signed Vice Admiral Lucas Nelson_

_/_

_/_

_/_

_ End Transmit _

Jackal re-read the data burst, and again and again. The amount of time Roger spent sharpening his knifes it's a wonder there was anything left, But his Ka-Bar was a nice sharp piece of metal. He donned a black bandanna around his forehead, and went back to sharpening his knife.

"I'm going to go fix up that new LAAG that Nelson gave us." Jackal said, as he got up. Roger grunted his reply.

Ziizika sat at the controls, but she had the Long-sword on Autopilot, when Silence spoke up,

"You know, we should probably name the Long-sword" he said, and Ziizika nodded her head in agreement,

"How about we call it _Long Rider_?" Roger added helpfully and Jackal called from halfway down the hallway.

"Why don't we call it- JESUS CHRIST!!" Everyone laughed,

"I'm not very religious, so I don't think that's such a good name-" said Roger

"We have a stowaway," Cut in Jackal as he started to drag the female out from the armoury. He threw her into the room; her long black hair falling with her, covering her Asian features. Roger eyed her up and down, then tried to look through her eyes, see what she was seeing…

They seemed pretty hard core, the guy staring at her in particular, sharpening his blade that didn't need sharpening, the one who was obviously female, and wore a 9mm on her leg. And the one who seemed not to even notice she was there, with his deep set eyes and Jet black hair set into a ponytail.

"I just wanted to leave, it was all too much, too many wounded, too much blood, three or four people I can handle, but-"

She had a voice which Countered what she looked like, a soft Australian accent. Roger noticed the white band and Red Cross on her Arm, which signified she was a Medic.

"What's your name?" asked Roger, as he motioned for Jackal to move away,

"Petty officer Corpsman Denise Vu" She stated as Roger helped her up

"Why do you have a Navy rank? I thought that was a _marine_ Helicon class" Said Silence, the first words he had said since Vu was thrown into the room.

"I'm going to call you Boo-Boo, You're fucked now Vu, You're with us and where we're going your going to see plenty of blood,"

Stated Roger, as he sat back down, letting the newly Named Boo-Boo to sway in confusion.

"Damn, it took me a full week to get a nickname from Roger; it took you the lesser part of a second. He definitely likes you"

"In half a second we are from four to five, wow." Ziizika stated as she turned back to the controls.

"Meh" Said Silence helping her to her feet.

The Sara system didn't have any living planets, or according to Boo-Boo it didn't anymore, the whole system was glassed about five years ago, and the only thing that remained of the glorious massacre of UNSC forces was a single prototype M.A.C gun, again, basically everywhere you moved in the space of the Sara you were moving through a hole in one of the massive wrecks, or dodging around smaller wreckage, until suddenly, they could see the gun.

"Boo-Boo, you left the UNSC to get away from blood, this time we need you to see your way through just a little bit more, then we'll drop you off at anywhere you want to go ok? Everyone else, you know what to do, suit up"

Ziizika pressed a green button, the button made a long three pronged pole smash three pyramid shaped glass cases on the outside of the ship, then they had five minutes of Active camouflage , only five. It wasn't exactly high tech, as more to scavenged tech, but it was effective, they managed to fly directly to the M.A.C, and into the hanger bay, the good thing about the wreckage was the static that still lay in space masked their approach, but now internal sensors could pick them up easily. Time was of the essence. Boo-Boo had with her a Battle Rifle, and had it set to automatic, she checked from side to side and then followed the other three, the chance of being dropped off at any planet of her choosing was too great to fathom, so she had accepted Roger's proposal.

The other three had secured the area; Roger slapped the console, and opened the door, then proceeded to the hallway beyond it,

"Looks like no ones home," Said Jackal,

"I wouldn't count on it, look" Said Boo-Boo, as she dropped into a kneel and let her Navy training take over, dropping the man with a single silenced shot.

"Good shot" said Roger,

"I hate marines" she replied,

"Navy people are just so much nicer" Boo-Boo continued, shaking her hair out of the way,

"Don't we all? Here, take this" said Ziizika, handing her a hair tie which Boo-Boo took gratefully, and tied her hair with it.

"You're just a real badass aren't you?" said Ziizika, as she noticed Silence kiss the cross he had stashed under his shirt.

"Yeah, I guess I am…" and planted his C4 on the wall behind the Pla-Steel wall lamp where it couldn't be seen. And then they split into two groups, Roger and Boo-Boo, the rest on the other side.

They proceeded along the next long and narrow hallways to the Bridge, they were told that the directions to the bridge were the same, as it was built along a diamond shaped structure, and was built that it could work as a ship as well as a defensive instillation. Simultaneously two silenced shots went off on one side and another second later the same on the other side. They reached their respected doors, and opened them,

"Didn't they say only one hundred Militia Rejects? That doesn't look like one hundred, and they sure as hell don't look like rejects."

"-THE TRUTH IS THAT THERE IS NO COVENANT! IT IS MERLY A GROUP OF SCAVENGER ALIENS, THEY-" yelled a man who was standing on a podium, which was erected in the centre of the room.

"Well, we can safely add crazy to that list" stated Roger, as he took out handful of flash bang grenades.

"Hey Joe, you remember why we shrugged off the UNSC?" said one guy to another, as they stood watching another of Adam Davison's Famous, The-military-is-crap speeches.

"I dunno, Eric. I'm just here coz we get paid more." Said Joe, shuffling in his Fatigue uniform which consisted of Khaki sleeveless jacket, a red fatigue cap, and Camo pants with the standard UNSC marine's heavy armour, which was now obsolete by at least a year.

"Who's that?" said Eric, pointing towards the M.E.R.C's,

One of which levelled a T.A.T.R-14, in his direction.

No one in the entire room had even a single gun… except for Adam Davison. He quickly drew and fired, but missed, hitting one of his men instead. All of his men dropped into crouches and ran out of the room. And the M.E.R.C's returned fire, Boo-Boo ducked behind a display panel, Silence was nowhere to be seen, Roger was scoping Adam out. But didn't fire, everyone stayed excruciatingly calm through the entire procedure, except for Boo-Boo.

People started to file out of the room in blind panic.

All four M.E.R.C's fired their T.A.T.R-14's at once. Aiming to cripple instead of kill, which was as they we're taught when fighting humans. Bang.


	5. V Adams Evening

Prologue

Chapter 5

Adam's Evening

_**All four M.E.R.C's fired their T.A.T.R-14's at once. Aiming to cripple instead of kill, which was as they we're taught when fighting humans. Bang.**_

Either the room was black, or he had his eyes closed. Either way he heard voices.

"That was too easy." One said, as he heard footsteps.

"I know, but still, an easy job with big pay is better than a hard job with none." Another said to his left. He let out a low groan as he moved.

"He's awake. Ziizika, you on left, Jackal, you on right. Hold him down okay?" said someone. He felt two extremely strong people holding down his arms and legs.

"Good evening Mr. Davison" He still couldn't open his eye's, but someone said his name, so he simply replied with another groan.

A thumb opened his right eye and flashed a small light, checking his pupil. His headache became a migraine.

"Okay Boo-Boo, I think we've established he's alive," Said the first person.

"If a bit concussed…"

"Alexia 131, she was that Girl from Sydney right?" said one man, who was wearing a suit which suggested a funeral more than a meeting.

"Yes, and she was also the top of the line in the… covert operations section of her training" said another, who was a mirror copy of the first, but for a large scar that crossed his eyebrow. A woman walked in.

"How nice of you to join us Katherine, We were just talking about the assassin you have chosen for this Op. impressive record. But it say's here that she's prone to acts of random violence,"

Katherine looked around the room seeing the faces of doubt.

"With all due respect sir's, H.U.N.T.E.R. was disbanded more than a year ago. So your handpicked team is really just those stragglers right?"

Everyone just stared, they knew

"How well do you think this psycho will go with our hand picked team?"

"Well then. She's perfect for this mission."

"Hit me." Boo-Boo said, throwing down a card.

"No, no, no. Look. For one we're not playing poker, and secondly you don't throw the card down when you say 'hit me' in poker either" replied Ziizika, passing the card back.

"It's not my fault; I've never played this before." Replied Boo-Boo.

"What are we playing?" said Silence, Roger walked in.

"Has anyone checked in on Davison?" he said, as he sat down at the table.

"This is bullshit" said Ziizika, making slapping motions at Silence who was trying to read her cards.

"I'll take that as a no." replied Roger.

"The game"

"Really now"

"Yes"

"Who's flying the ship?"

"Jackal"

"Bullshit?"

"No really, look for yourself"

Boo-Boo sat wide eyed at the two of them bickering until Silence whispered something to her,

"This could take a while"

The cockpit started to flash red. Jackal fell from his chair in surprise

"I didn't do it, I swear!" said Jackal, as he picked himself up off the floor.

Ziizika swept past and took the controls,

"Someone's locked onto us, what should I try and avoid them sir?" she said, while dropping the ship into an orbit around the closest planet, missing two MI4 class missiles by inches. Watching as the missiles crashed into some space debris.

"It's a class D planet, glassed but habitable in some areas.

"God damn it! Not a moment of peace is there? Well, let's take them down." Roger said, as he ran to the armoury.

"It's another Long-sword, same model as we got." Jackal said, reading the ACRTD panel.

"No, it's too fast, and it's fading in and out of my scans, like it's not a registered vessel. We're breaking through the Ionosphere" Said Ziizika, as they dropped into the planets Gravity, taking a beating from the ship behind them, which was trying to force them to land.

Fire erupted from the rear side.

"Either that's really bad or really good." Ziizika said, taking the ship to five hundred meters.

An alarm started bleeping.

"Well, it sure as hell isn't good" shouted Jackal as the ship started to fall lower and lower.

As the ship hit one hundred meters, they could see a city below them. Roger came out of the armoury with a Battle rifle attached to his left thigh, his knife set to the right, which now included a long Machete, there were also two Mark IV Fragmentation grenades and a smoke grenade in his belt, which complimented the T.A.T.R-14 which crossed with a S.A.M. attached to his back.

"Everyone else get suited up, I'll take the bird down myself." Boo-Boo was last to leave, following the other three into the narrow hallway she turned and watched, as Roger moved towards the chair, then turned and moved to the armoury.

"What an inspirational man" she said to herself, dragging Adam behind her.

Roger took the controls and moved the ship with more grace than a bird. Left right up down spin, only three or four of the hundreds of shots fired at them hit, and even they weren't enough to do any substantial damage. He stopped the ship in mid-air and spun it, so it would end up behind their attackers, it worked, and he shot several of their MI4's at them in turn.

The ship was hit, but they skimmed into each other, sending them both into a spiralling decay of height.

Then everything went black


	6. VI HUNTER

Prologue

Chapter 6

H.U.N.T.E.R

_**The ship was hit, but they skimmed into each other, sending them both into a spiralling decay of height. **_

_**Then everything went black**_

H.U.N.T.E.R (Human United Nations Tactical Eradication and Recon) was founded three years after the human planet of Korus was glassed. It was a unit of normal soldiers who were given incredible hunting, sniping, Guerrilla and covert training along with light augmentations, and was designed to find and return the other special units, Dead or alive. Spartan 131 Alexia was a member of H.U.N.T.E.R she was the only Ex-Orion to make it into the unit.

And now she had crashed a multi billion dollar prototype Ship onto an evacuated and semi-glassed planet.

The rest of the team included Sarah, who was an expert in close combat and fencing, Roman who was an expert sniper and any long range weaponry, Mia, who was an expert engineer, and Carl, who was the demolitions specialist who oddly enough doubled as the team medic.

Alexia was the first to wake. And immediately felt sorry for doing so. Her head felt like it had a thousand jackhammers beating away at the inside of her brain.

She wanted to slip back into the cosy unconsciousness she had been in not moments ago. And then she thought about the others.

If she was this bad with the genetic engineering, and the increased tissue and bone strength, this might have killed them.

She got up, slowly, and staggered through the wreckage of the Long Sword (which was more covenant technology than she would have liked) and checked each of their pulses.

They were alive, just unconscious. She breathed a sigh of relief with every person she checked, and then set herself to scavenging.

She counted three SA-15 classed sniper rifles, one case of C4, fifteen Mark IV grenades, three silenced Magnums, eight cases of ammunition for the snipers and magnums and a Spartan laser with only one shot. That was not including the katana or Bayonets they were carrying. She also found that although the radios were fried, the remainder of the MHQS (Military Head Quarters Set) was pretty much intact, and that the rations they had stored with it hadn't spoiled. She glanced at the others again,

"You guys will be out for a long time eh?" she said to herself, and got to work in setting up base camp.

On the other side of the half ruined city, the complete M.E.R.C unit was up and running, all except Boo-Boo, who was still unconscious, Adam, who was dead, and Roger who was in the ship. Each of them had bailed out of the Long-sword before it crashed into a non important looking office building, except for Roger, who they didn't see. They had also sent down a L.A.A.G warthog down with them, which was full of supplies with them. Always prepared as the scouts saying goes.

Just then, Boo-Boo woke, and groaned at the effort of doing so. "Glad to see your among the living again" said Silence, as he moved from the window to her.

"Bite me" she replied, "Where are we?"

Silence went back to his window and said,

"Looks like the beautiful city of Vertis on the D class planet Kerry. But its funny, the Covenant usually glass the whole planet, why would they leave a major city standing?" Ziizika replied as she looked up from a can of peaches.

Boo-Boo looked around the room, it wasn't very big, and contained a sofa, which was to the corner next to the door, four wooden chairs around a wooden table, which was pressed against peeling wallpaper, and the weapons which were laying on several crates in strategic areas around the room.

Jackal was "covering" the door, which is a nice way of saying he was asleep on the couch.

"Where's Roger?" she asked, pulling herself up from the ground and into a half crouch position… no one said a word.

Except for Jackal,

"He didn't make it" he said, and Ziizika just snapped.

"WE DON'T KNOW THAT. THE RADIOS DON'T WORK!" she yelled, throwing the peaches onto the ground.

"What's there to know Ziizika? He didn't come down with us, and we are in a bad enough way as it is!" Jackal said, sitting up.

"Here he comes now" said Silence pointing out the window at a limping frame at the edge of a war torn street. And everyone rushed to the window.

"See? I told you he was alright" said Jackal, which everyone ignored.

Alexia's squad was up inside of an hour, helping around the camp, which they had set up inside of a hotel, on the east side of the city. Roman walked up to Alexia,

"I thought you Spartans wore that MJOLNIR armour, why weren't you given any?"

Alexia looked at him, he was about her height, which was surprisingly tall for a man without genetic engineering, he had a brown eye on the right but had a blue electronic eye on the left side, which was complimented by a scar that ran down from above his eye to his cheek.

"I'm technically not a Spartan, I was enlisted to the program Orion and went through the training like a breeze, but I-" Alexia stopped in mid-sentence and let her head drop

"That's a story for another day Ro"

"Okay." Roman replied,

"I think Sarah might need a hand." Alexia Said. Just as she said it, Sarah dropped the munitions crate she had been carrying.

Roman watched and said, "I see your point"

As alexia watched, Roman walked over to Sarah and helped her and the crate up.

"Well I suppose Rome wasn't built in a day…"

Boo-Boo strapped the bandage to Roger's leg, and tapped it to re circulate the blood after the stitches had been placed. She had to cut deep into his leg because of a piece of shrapnel that almost hit the bone. Throughout the whole procedure, Roger didn't even flinch. Boo-Boo wasn't sure if that was because of the lack of feeling he may have gained or his almost superhuman strength and stamina. She packed up the remainder of the health pack back into a backpack.

She held her fingers close together, "You were millimetres away from loosing your leg Roger. You know that right?"

Jackal jumped from the window.

"Covies" he said. Roger looked at him blankly.

"One pain to the next" he said as he groaned while getting up.

"Do you think it was them that knocked us down?" Ziizika asked, rushing towards a M4A1 Carbine which was lying on the table.

"Maybe, we didn't exactly get a good look at them." Jackal replied, setting his sights on the lone figure of the jackal.

"I call dibs on this one" said Jackal angrily as he jerked the gun slightly above the sights. And then he fired. The bullet worked well, it smashed through the aliens head ending purple blood spraying against the wall behind it.

The jackal slumped to the ground. But from behind the wall two more Jackals came to investigate.

They looked at their dead comrade and at the window from where he was hit. And put two and two together.


	7. VII Fakes

Prologue

Chapter 7

Fakes

"_**I call dibs on this one" said Jackal angrily as he jerked the gun slightly above the sights. And then he fired. The bullet worked well, it smashed through the aliens head ending purple blood spraying against the wall behind it.**_

_**The jackal slumped to the ground. But from behind the wall two more Jackals came to investigate. **_

_**They looked at their dead comrade and at the window from where he was hit. And put two and two together.**_

"That's right bitches," said Jackal as he re-loaded his gun. He had taken the last two out and was getting ready for the next when Ziizika grabbed his shoulder.  
"C'mon Jackal, we Got to go. If they know where we are we might have a full-scale war zone inside of an hour." She said, but Jackal batted her away.

"You go. I have unfinished business with these guys." He said as he turned back to the window taking three of the Un-Goy out with two shots, by a through and through, and one of the Elites with the other two. Silence smashed against the other window to break it and joined in. taking out some more jackals and an elite as well.

"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" screamed Ziizika as she helped Roger up to the doorway. Boo-Boo following.

"Leave them be. They know what their doing Ziizika, they need this." Roger said as he got out of Ziizika's Grip and staggered over to the couch, taking out his own NAAV and attaching it to his M4A1 Carbine, then Grabbing his already scoped T.A.T.R-14 and spraying the ground in front of the small army of covenant, making a black line and then ejecting the Battery from the side, and replacing it with a fresh one, he then switched to his M4A1 and shot out a Power line pole which landed on top o a set of the Un-Goy.

"Jesus Christ, fine. Die here. I'm leaving though." She said as she moved through the door. But just as she made it through she was blocked by three heavily armed humans.

"Wha-" said Ziizika as she noticed Alexia, who was wearing a black balaclava over her head, grabbed her arm and threw her onto her back, while ripping her arm right behind her in a spectacular display of H.U.N.T.E.R Martial art training, and then handcuffed and muffled her. The Covenant army Disappeared in a blue haze

The door Smashed open. Roger turned away from the window and took three large steps towards the table, and in half a second had assessed the situation. He shot the First, who was male, dead centre through the chest with his T.A.T.R-14, and Jackal spun to take the female.

But in a display of un-natural speed, the woman jumped, used what was left of the swinging roof light as a kind of swing and slammed both feet into Roger's supposedly unprotected chest, sending him sliding across the cement of the floor back against the window. Silence had sent three more shots towards the psycho woman who had just disabled Roger, but all had missed. And then he noticed that another guy, with a robotic blue eye was to his left. But it was too late. The man, Roman, kicked him in the head. Knocking him out and for the second time today, everything went black.

But with Jackal, It went red, and all of his training went out of the window. He grabbed Roman, and threw him out the door, sending him crashing into the people standing around the doorway, and then spear tackled Alexia.

Alexia pulled out her knife, a Bowie, from her bootstrap, and Jackal did the same.

Roman came jumping to his feet, but was held off by a wave of Alexia's free hand.

Jackals Training returned for a second, through his red haze, and he rolled across the ground to present His Ka-bar in a large upward Arc, which was countered by Alexia's Bowie, as she turned behind the now standing Jackal and kicked him in his side.

Jackal fell to the ground, and slashed upwards again, this time tearing through the Khaki vest like butter, and drawing blood from Alexia's shoulder.

She tore off the remains of the Vest, underneath was a black Tank Top with the H.U.N.T.E.R logo on it, which was a grey snake swallowing Earth with H.U.N.T.E.R written in the foreground.

Alexia's fist came crashing into Jackals head, sending him sprawling to the ground.

His memories flashed before him. And he remembered when they first abandoned the army… back when there was a whole unit of Grey Fox.

Dog fell silently, blood pouring from a wound in her chest as the energy sword was ripped from the hand of the Sang-Heli by Drac who died second, as he jumped over the Semi-melted sandbags which had been protecting him, running towards Dogs fleeing Murderer. He was felled by a single shot through the torso.

Jackal watched as almost the whole unit was obliterated by three silver Elites a couple of hunters, and a Wraith

Then he noticed Silence who, as always, was stealthily making his way to the head of the snow capped hill.

Spartan Alexia 131, who had joined their squad for this mission only, called for a charge against their outnumbered foes. But was the only one to do so. She ran out into the fray, letting the blue plasma fizz against her Mark III MJOLNIR armour, dodging some then spun as she pulled the triggers of her duel SMG's to no avail. They were both empty.

So she threw the first, while still running, at the Elite in front of her, then the second she used as a club, sweeping it at the legs, and back against the head. The two Hunters started to charge their guns when Silence joined in, sending one crashing into the snow headfirst.

Aussie rammed his plasma-cutter into the neck brace of the giant lumbering beast, sending it crashing onto him. Jackal ran from his place behind the sandbags, and took five metres in two leaps.

Then the wraith appeared. Ramming one of the other M.E.R.C's away with ease, Bird was her name, and the last thing she did was fly.

Roman, the new recruit, the greenhorn, came rushing up, holding his Sniper in his hands. He ran up behind the Wraith and jumped on its back. But Alexia had already sent herself smashing in the front half where the alien driver sat.

Roger noticed both of these, and ran to the back of the giant alien Tank, tackling Roman from the back half, and sending him sprawling to the half-glassed ground.

The wraith exploded, and Searing hot plasma came rushing out in a spherical shape from the now ruined Wraith turning the ground underneath into glass. Roman was only scolded on one side of his face, but screamed in pain as his face began to melt.

"CORPSMAN" Roger yelled, knowing of the closeness of Romans damage and the possibility o Plasma-poisoning, or even worse Boren's syndrome…

Roger woke up. He was chained to a streetlight; he shook his head to relieve himself of tiredness, and looked around him.

Several feet away from him was Jackal, then Ziizika, Boo-Boo, and Silence, each was attached to a streetlight.

"How are we going to get ourselves out of this one?" He asked to no one in particular.

A Un-Goy started to crawl up to them. Each slide brining it closer to the trapped M.E.R.C's.

Then it fizzed into a blue haze and disappeared, and from behind some rubble came the man with the blue robotic eye.

He was laughing.

"Technology these day's. You never know if what you see is real or fake…" Roman said, walking towards them, and dropping a small plasma grenade shaped device.

"Holograms" Roger said, reaching for the device with his un-clamped foot.

"How many of those you got?"

Roman looked at him with an evil grin,

"I took the last set. There are seven left now left now, just used the eighth on the Un-Goy there, one for each of us, one spare." Roman stated, patting a small leather pack.

"We can't take you with us. I would but we can't be sure it's not a trap, you know this right?" Roger replied in a serious tone.

"You saved my life once Roger." Roman said, pointing to his Robotic eye.

"Now I'm going to repay the debt." He brought out a Plasma-cutter, and twirled it in his hand, then set to work.

"You'll get in deep shit for this," Roger said, nodding his thanks

"Who are you, your mother or mine?" the reply came from Roman.

"There" He stated as the cutter got through.

"I'm sorry Ro, I really am" Roger said as he stood up, shaking Romans hand.

"What are you apologising for?" Roman asked. He turned to look behind him at the rubble where he had been hidden.

Roger whacked him over the head, sending him sprawled to the ground, unconscious.

"That" Roger replied, taking the cutter and the devices, and then setting to work on his team.


	8. VIII Children

Prologue

Chapter 8

Children

"_**Who are you, your mother or mine?" the reply came from Roman.**_

_**"There" He stated as the cutter got through.**_

_**"I'm sorry Ro, I really am" Roger said as he stood up, shaking Romans hand.**_

_**"What are you apologising for?" Roman asked. He turned to look behind him at the rubble where he had been hidden.**_

_**Roger whacked him over the head, sending him sprawled to the ground, unconscious.**_

_**"That" Roger replied, taking the cutter and the device, and then setting to work on his team.**_

Jackal eyed up the unconscious frame of Roman, who they were dragging with them.

"Why are we taking this guy again?" He asked.

"We're taking him to the Ship, and off of this place." Replied Roger, as he checked the corner.

"Two questions, one, why are we taking him? And two, isn't the ship kind of… broken?" Stated Ziizika, while defending the rear with the Magnum pistol they had scavenged from Romans pack.

"Okay, one he just saved our lives, we have a duty to repay that much and two I forgot to mention that the ship is still flyable, just a bit banged up, I activated the shield to the max before I crashed." Roger replied, dodging around a burnt out Vehicle, which had obviously not been abandoned before set alight.

Then the cityscape suddenly stopped. It broke into a large wheat field,

_Ziizika stood in a yellow wheat field, children were playing in the grass, as a figure walked towards them, it turned towards her, and what she saw was a horribly burnt man, as his blistered and charred fingers reached towards Ziizika, and the sky turned from adoring blue, into hating red as the planet began to be glassed. The children began to scream as her vision began to blur._

"It's just over there, do you see it?" explained Roger, as he pointed towards an area from which smoke was billowing slowly.

Ziizika looked around herself; this was the place of her dreams.

She had dreamt of the glassing which had taken place, and the man who had come to warn the children.

There were survivors here.

"We can't leave, not yet" She stated.

"No? Why We're already at the ship, what's stopping us?" Boo-Boo asked, not sure of what had happened.

"Two things, one, the children, and two… uh, I can't figure how to say this but one of the H.U.N.T.E.R people has the activator. Without that I can't lower the shield and we can't get in."

"I understand sir but it was out of your hands… you had the dream too?" asked Jackal, Silence broke in,

"The guy with the burns, the Burners-" Roger cut in

"The children…"

"But really, this planet was glassed months ago, who could have survived that long? Where? Half the planet is inhabitable" Boo-Boo said, making a decent point.

"The sewer…" said Silence, watching as everyone else looked at him questioningly.

"What? Your dreams didn't go that far?"

"Uh, no, I got up to the burnt guy then woke up, what about you guys?" asked Roger, they all agreed.

"Okay, well here's how it goes"

_Silence stood in a yellow wheat field, children were playing in the grass, as a figure walked towards them, it turned towards her, and what she saw was a man, , and the sky turned from adoring blue, into hating red as the planet began to be glassed. The man screamed something, and they all ducked, which was just as well, as an army began to land in the city which was not far from where they stood. _

_The man called out, and picked up one of the children, making them follow, towards the city. The children called out as a burner came overhead, sending a concentrated beam through the city block, which slid across the man. Silence watched as blistered and charred fingers reached towards him, begging for help, then the flames engulfed the man, but the children still stood, they had just been missed, and crawled into a sewer hatch…_

"And that's my dream." Silence said, as he began to unconsciously move back towards the city. Roger, Boo-Boo and the rest followed closely.

They made it to the sewer, and saw the body of the horribly burnt man.

"There's something weird about this place, the Covenant burners literally melt anything. So why are the Buildings still standing around here? And why is he still here, shouldn't he be a puddle of Biomaterial?" Boo-Boo stated, as she removed the sewer grate.

"Oh god" said Jackal, as he ran to a bin, and threw up.

"Poor kids"

What had happened was the burner had boiled the water in the sewers, to the point where it attempted to evaporate. But it couldn't. So the air became thick with chemicals and the stuff you flush. The children were essentially boiled alive in superheated sewage. There were only bones to show that anyone was ever down there.

"We have to get out of here." Silence said.

"No, first we need to get the activator" Roger stated.

"Uh… sorry to spoil your parade but there's something you're forgetting" stated Jackal, as he turned to look at Roman.

"What should we do about the H.U.N.T.E.R guys?"

Alexia watched from a rooftop silently as Roger, Ziizika and Jackal pushed Roman along the road; Silence held the rear with the pistol but seemed unaware of Mia either.

Their movements surprised alexia; it seemed they weren't as smart as they were supposed to be.

"What's your plan Grey-Fox?" Alexia asked herself quietly, as she signalled for Sarah to take Silence first.

In five shots it was over. Three from Mia, who had been watching from the scope of a sniper on the adjacent rooftop, and two from Sarah who had carefully chosen a pile of debris near two large dumpsters.

The members of M.E.R.C seemed to fall to the ground in slow motion, blood oozing from their bullet wounds.


	9. IX Numbers

Prologue

Chapter 9

Numbers

_**Alexia watched from a rooftop silently as Roger, Ziizika and Jackal pushed Roman along the road, Silence held the rear with the pistol but seemed unaware of Mia either. Alexia was surprised by their movements; it seemed they weren't as smart as they were supposed to be.**_

_**"What's your plan Grey-Fox?" Alexia asked herself quietly, as she signalled for Sarah to take Silence first.**_

_**In five shots it was over. Three from Sarah, who had been watching from the scope of a sniper on the adjacent rooftop, and two from Mia who had carefully chosen a pile of debris near two large dumpsters.**_

_**Each member of M.E.R.C seemed to fall to the ground in slow motion, blood oozing from their bullet wounds. **_

Then they fizzed out into a blue haze, each from where they had been shot.

"HOLOGRAMS!" yelled Alexia, but it was too late, with the same ease that had been taken by Mia to kill the fake M.E.R.C's Jackal had done so on the unsuspecting sniper. As she turned, she faced Jackals loaded M5 side arm, and took a bullet through her unprotected waist. The limp body of the engineering specialist fell silently off the edge of the building, not making a sound until it gave the sickening crunch of flesh and bone on concrete as it hit the ground.

Sarah saw the body of Mia fall, and ran to where it lay, only to be bashed on the back of the head by Ziizika, who dragged the body behind the building.

"Shit! She doesn't have it!" Silence said, after rifling around in her pockets.

Sarah Got back up, she turned, and saw a man slightly limping towards her with a Ka-bar loosely in his hand.

"Konichiwa old man, you want to play?" Sarah said, her arm moving to the two Katana's on her back and throwing it to Roger.

"Konichiwa Sensei to you" Roger replied as he caught the Katana and moved it into a backhanded stance, sheathing his Ka-bar and moving his feet into place to take the strikes.

"We'll see about that" Sarah replied, and she set to striking.

Her foot lifted from the air as she gave an upward slash followed by a downward faint, then an attempted stab, Roger used the Katana to spin to his own defence, then noticed out of the corner of his eye Jackal lining Sarah up in his sights, He gave her an abnormal push with the flat of the blade and screamed to Jackal.

"I CAN HANDLE IT!" Sarah did the same to Alexia.

They both took their positions, dragging their boots into the bitumen of the street for grip.

Sarah started a group of manoeuvres which sent Roger slowly stepping backwards.

Roger expertly dodged a downward slash and parried an uppercut which was followed by a golf swing and a thrust. Each he had barely missed by milliseconds.

He returned his ground by matching Sarah's moves with his own.

Sarah dodged the tip of the Katana by sidestepping and got her blade past Roger's defences to draw a bloodied line from under his eye to over his eyebrow. If Roger had not bent backwards, his face would have been in a lot worse shape.

"Hmm, So Sensei, It seems your hurt" said Sarah, as she circled Roger who was standing back up. Sarah's blade reflecting the sunlight off of the trickle of Roger's blood that hung onto its tip.

"Heh, only my pride" Roger replied, immediately returning to the attack, Sarah sent a slash at Rogers legs, which he jumped over and almost caught her in the face, but she lifted her blade just in time to catch the almost fatal blow.

Roger continued sending crushing blow after crushing blow, which sent Sarah stepping backwards looking for an advantage.

But she didn't find one; instead she caught the blade through a small pack which held her armour in place, sending it and her shirt floating to the ground. She tore off the remainder of the now useless armour and threw it to the ground, underneath was a black tank top which had a grey snake swallowing Earth with H.U.N.T.E.R written in the foreground. She resumed her stance, and noticed a trickle of blood falling from her shoulder.

"Hmm, so it seems your hurt" said Roger, imitating her statement seconds ago,

"Only my pride" she scoffed.

Despite the sluggish movement Roger gave, he still managed to keep up with the twenty year old expert. Dodging and returning her blows with his own, but the fact is, Roger was injured.

At the worst possible moment, Rogers' knee buckled under the strain of movement, and his stitches broke. He fell to the ground, and knew he was vulnerable.

Although, surprisingly, it saved his life, a beam rifle shot echoed from the top of a balcony, from where a Sang-Heli stood scoping up another shot.

This one wasn't a hologram,

It started to smash the weapon on the railing of the balcony, and yelled out an alien curse.

Roger stood, blood streaming from his leg. The Sang-Heli noticed this and let out a cry of victory, assuming it was the cause of the wound.

Alexia had no ammunition, she had too give her sniper to Mia, and a pistol isn't very good for long range in the hands of a demolitions expert, more so without the scope. But Jackal shot at it anyway. The Sang-Heli responded by running away.

"Okay… what was that about?" Roger asked.

Sarah sent a crushing blow towards Roger's head to which he swung around and sent the end of his katana smashing into her nose, breaking it and sending blood pouring onto the ground, with her following closely.

"That's enough alright? There are bigger fish to fry" he said, helping her up.

"Jesus, were you just playing with me or something?" she said, taking his hand and being lifted to her feet, while her other hand gripped her nose, which she snapped back into place with a wince and a crunch.

"I wanted to know your limits…" Roger replied, handing her a bloodstained handkerchief from his pocket, which she took and wiped her face clear, and then gave a smile.

"Damn your cute" she said to which he frowned as Jackal came to her with a grin on his face that could shatter glass.

"Thankyou" Jackal said, and the scowl fell from Rogers face to be replaced with an awkward smile.

Alexia dropped from the rooftop, landing on the pavement with the quiet simplicity only an assassin could manage.

"He's right… that Sang-Heli was here for a reason, by the looks of things though it's out of ammunition, we should deal with that before we get back to killing each other." said Alexia.

Roger nodded his approval


	10. X Hunter or Hunted

Prologue

Chapter 10

Hunter or Hunted

"_**Jesus, were you just playing with me or something?" she said, taking his hand and being lifted to her feet, while her other hand gripped her nose, which she snapped back into place with a wince and a crunch.**_

_**"I wanted to know your limits…" Roger replied, handing her a bloodstained handkerchief from his pocket**_

The M.E.R.C's and the remaining three H.U.N.T.E.R's decided to start their search for the missing Covenant by searching the office block it had fired from. All they found was the discarded beam rifle it had used and a small packet which looked like a marine ration pack.

"Okay… well let's get some rest then, because I'm really tired for some reason" said Jackal stifling a yawn

"Chlorophome" said Roger, as he covered his face and brought out his knife. Jackal fell, Ziizika followed. Roger spun around with his foot, waited half a second for the familiar thump and then brought his blade down.

The only problem was, the thump he heard was Mia, collapsing on top of Boo-Boo and had slammed his between the invisible Sang-Heli's legs.

The Sang-Heli's active camouflage failed and Roger now stared into the face of a fully grown Covenant Elite, which was wearing the black armour of Special Operations.

It brought its own blade to bear, activating the energy weapon and rolling to its hoofs into a battle position. But Alexia was faster.

She tackled it, sending it crashing into the ground; Rogers's foot came lashing out and struck the beast in its armoured chest.

It lay unconscious with the Humans.

"Let's take him back to our base" said Alexia, stifling a Yawn, Roger picked up the hoofs of the Unconscious alien and Alexia picked up the shoulders.

Roger Noticed a small purple coin shaped device lying on the ground where the Sang-Heli had just dropped.

"What is that?" asked Alexia.

Just then a rumbling explosive sound came, quiet at first, but getting louder and louder as it got closer, coming from two different directions. And there was no doubt it was coming from what was left of the Long-sword's.

"And the horse we rode in on…"

Sorrung-Yaan awoke to the smell of burning meat and wondered:

'Am I the cause of this smell? Did I fail the forerunners so much that they set me here? Did I manage to destroy the unclean humans? No, I remember falling, then the foot into my chest'

He opened his eyes, and saw a campfire burning the carcass of a deer. Even though it was still daylight, the campfire set ominous shadows throughout the human camp

"Where am I?" he asked, and immediately realised his mistake.

"Ah… our friend has awoken, hey Ziizika" Said a female, as she looked at him, two blades protruding from sheathes on her back.

"I am no friend of yours Human" He replied, to which another female came over and said in a Mexican accent.

"I'd start talking if I were you, or my good pal Mia will stop being so happy, and she gats really mean when she's not happy" Said Ziizika

"Before the day is ended your blood will be spilled on the green grass of your planet. Pray the forerunners will be sympathetic to your cries for it to end. Where am I?" The reply came, as Sorrung-Yaan groggily started to move, only to realize he was tied to a dumpster.

"Tut, tut, we're right here, if I stood there I'd still be here, but if I stand here I'd be there. Okay, our turn. What's your name?" said he one called Mia, as she sat down.

"Sorrung-Yaan, You won't get anymore from me human, so kill me now or when I get free I will end your existence in the most painful of ways you can imagine." Sorrung-Yaan said, struggling to remove the inch thick, metal cable chaining him to the dumpster.

"Yeah, okay… well I've heard that one at least a hundred times before… and each time they still say more."

Ziizika came towards him holding a syringe in her hand, when Sorrung-Yaan noticed this he started to shrink away from it instinctively.

"What is that?" he asked, as the syringe went into his scaly skin.

"This? Oh… this is truth serum, just in case you decide to lie to us" replied Ziizika, removing the Syringe and stepping away.

"Now… why are you here?" Mia asked, in the kindest voice an interrogator could manage.

"To kill you" Ziizika scowled at its reply, and then started to mumble to herself, Mia asked another question.

"How did you get here?" Mia asked, crawling towards him, but he didn't reply.

"How…" she moved closer

"-Did…" even closer, behind her back she fingered the hilt of Rogers super-sharp Ka-Bar.

"-You get here?" the last two words were made point by the point of the Ka-Bar's hilt smashing onto the concrete only centimetres away from its elbow.

"Kill me then. I will stare back at you in the Great Journey and laugh upon your unclean race." said Sorrung-Yaan without turning or flinching, to which Roger walked up to the back of Mia, and pried the Ka-Bar from her unfazed hands.

"I give up" Mia stated, with her hands in the air as she walked away from the Sang-Heli.

Ziizika looked up at the sky. Watching as the last sparkles of light faded into the distance of beyond the city.

Everyone was asleep. All except for Roger and the alien they had captured, the whole unit were snoozing. Roger was on sentry duty, staying ever alert for any dangers.

"Aren't you going to feed me?" said Sorrung-Yaan shuffling against the dumpster he was tied to.

Roger moved close to the Sang-Heli, and removed his Ka-Bar.

_Dog fell silently, blood pouring from a wound in her chest as the energy sword was ripped from the hand of the Sang-Heli by Drac who died second, as he jumped over the Semi-melted sandbags which had been protecting him, running towards Dogs fleeing Murderer. He was felled by a single shot through the torso._

Roger came closer to the beast, sliding the blade across its neck, but not letting the blade touch the skin.

"I should kill you now, for what your race has done." Roger said, as he gripped the blade tighter,

"We have done nothing but begin to exterminate your disgusting race human." Sorrung-Yaan spat. His Mandibles clicking as the hatred of Roger glazed in his eyes, matched only by the disgust of Sorrung-Yann.

"There was a time where Humans were like you. We fought many of our own to conquer pillage rape and control. Our leaders said their motions were purely done because our god commanded them to. Many cities were burnt to the ground under the banner of a merciful god." Said Roger, as he sheathed his blade and turned towards the campfire.

"How is a god a god if they command their people to do evil? How is mercy so painful?" he continued, picking up a stick, and stirring the embers back around an unburnt log.

"Your gods are false. And you as a race do not deserve to live." The reply came from Sorrung-Yaan, coating his words with the hatred that he had done so with many times before.

"You're Sentinels, haven't you ever wondered why they refer to humans as the Reclaimers? And why there is some technology that couldn't be activated with four fingers?" Roger said calmly, the disbelief burning on the Sang-Heli's face.

"How did you know that?" Sorrung-Yaan asked. Roger smiled before replying.

"Same way as I know about the flood, I asked the right… person."


	11. XI Remember

Prologue

Chapter 11

Remember

"_**You're Sentinels, haven't you ever wondered why they refer to humans as the Reclaimers? And why there is some technology that couldn't be activated with four fingers?" Roger said calmly, the disbelief burning on the Sang-Heli's face.**_

"_**How did you know that?" Sorrung-Yaan asked. Roger smiled before replying.**_

"_**Same way as I know about the flood, I asked the right… person."**_

"There was once a man who wrote a poem. It went like this:

Remember that day on February,

The Day of Judgment has come

And all the bodies buried,

Will fill the holes they dug

Remember that day on February,

And there we wonder why

And all the bodies buried

Of those that day that died

The twenty third of February

Where Heavens angels wept

And Satan's soldiers were merry

For all of those who slept" Roger said it carefully, knowing the power that words played, and as he came closer to the Sang-Heli. It seemed the Alien knew what he meant.

"You still haven't told me how you know about the Reclaimers, or the Flood." It stated.

"We are part of a unit called M.E.R.C, Marine Emergency Reconnaissance Corp. my squad, GreyFox, used to have thirteen members. Alexia was an on and off kind of person, between her Orion training. Drac was a great soldier, and was killed at the battle of Bloodied Canyon, same with Dog, Biggie, Aussie, Doc and Bird.

Mia, Roman, Ziizika, Jackal, Alexia, Silence, and I are the last.

At Bloodied canyon, we managed to make it away…"

Then the wraith appeared. Ramming one of the other M.E.R.C's away with ease, Bird was her name, and the last thing she did was fly.

Roman, the new recruit, the greenhorn, came rushing up, holding his Sniper in his hands. He ran up behind the Wraith and jumped on its back. But Alexia had already sent herself smashing in the front half where the alien driver sat.

Roger noticed both of these, and ran to the back of the giant alien Tank, tackling Roman from the back half, and sending him sprawling to the half-glassed ground.

The wraith exploded, and Searing hot plasma came rushing out in a spherical shape from the now ruined Wraith turning the ground underneath into glass. Roman was only scolded on one side of his face, but screamed in pain as his face began to melt.

"CORPSMAN" Roger yelled, knowing of the closeness of Romans damage and the possibility o Plasma-poisoning, or even worse Boren's syndrome,

Doc came over, and took out a First aid Kit.

Alexia started boxing one of the silver Sang-Heli that remained. And Jackal Tackled another, sending it tripping over, but not killing it, It got up, and as it did, The reinforcements came, for both sides. Three Hornets engaged three out of four Banshees' and a Scorpion Tank rolled over a hill for the fourth, And a dozen more heavily armed Sang-Heli's Came down in Drop-Pods, Which was met by the hardcore human 41st O.D.S.T Division. The M.E.R.C's retreated, dragging the Semi-conscious Roman with them.

"There, let's get inside that bunker." Silence called, pointing his T.A.T.R-14 at an open lean-to type building, His pretty face showing fear as he watched the O.D.S.T unit was blown from existence by a Scarab that had followed the Covenant army over the hill.

Roger remembered his briefing.

_/ The following Document is classified, and is deniable by any or all major countries of the UNSC._

_/_

_/_

_/_

_Project Bush Fire_

_This mission is designated Heavy risk_

_The Industrial planet Lauren has been attacked by the Covenant forces. They seem to be interested in a specific area of the planet. They are digging. Information is sketchy at best as they have heavily fortified the area. Last estimate counts that the planet has only had a small portion of it "Glassed" and it's atmosphere Is breathable. We want to Claim the prize of what they are after. Unfortunately the Orion forces are completely overwhelmed with other missions at the moment. As you may well know the remaining three Orion's are beyond classified and you should be Relieved to know our deniability of their current existence is working very well at the moment. There are a number of problems. Only one Orion will be accompanying your M.E.R.C, Units Grey-Fox, Green-Boar, and the H.U.N.T.E.R Unit Backstab._

_The O.D.S.T 41__st__ and 42__nd__ will be accompanying you also._

_Be also advised that all radio contact will be shaky at best, as the Covenant sent a EMP into the Ionosphere to disrupt any of our communication_

_The mission if accepted is to either_

_(a)Assault and remove any Covenant Resistance for our scientist team to extract whatever the Covenant is after._

_(b)Destroy the Object/Information that the Covenant are after._

_(c)Hold the Covenant from their excavation until the remaining Orion forces, ONI and more UNSC forces arrive._

_And good luck to you and your Unit Lieutenant-Major Roger._

_Signed Captain Lucas Nelson_

_/_

_/_

_/_

_ End Transmit _

Beyond Classified… Good Luck… He should have done more than expect more than to actually believe they could make a difference.

The 42nd O.D.S.T and the whole H.U.N.T.E.R Unit were killed before they even made landfall. Alexia 121 was one of the remaining "Dead" Orion's. And yet here she stood. With the new title of Spartan to bang her up to shape. He eyed up Roman, and then scoured the landscape for more cover but the only cover he could see was further into enemy territory.

"Silence, grab his feet, Jackal, Ziizika? Cover us okay? No one from my unit dies today. Is that clear?" Roger said, grabbing Romans feet, and motioning down the hill towards the enemy's stronghold.

"Um how much you want to bet no one makes it back?" said Jackal reloading his T.A.T.R-14 and picking up Silence's as well. Ziizika did the same with Rogers' and her own.

"Could we at least wait for our next wave before we go?" Roman said, as his face began to solidify, but his eye was completely white and his face was showing deep plasma burns, it was clear he needed medical attention.

"We don't even know if there will be a next wave Ro. We really got to go now" Roger said running backwards outside of the cover, with Ziizika in front and Jackal at the rear.

The second they broke cover, they came under fire from the superior forces on the other side of the long hill.

Roger turned his head to give Jackal directions on who to shoot first and when he turned back Ziizika was nowhere in sight

"Hey, you're supposed to be giving us cover fire. That usually works when you shoot back." Silence stated, as he lost some hair to the incoming fire. Thankfully they were too far away for them to fire accurately.  
Jackal dropped to his knee and sent a few of his own shots from the dual T.A.T.R-14's back at them, then resumed the run towards the cover.

But as he turned, he noticed Roger and Silence had disappeared, just the same as Ziizika had.

"Aw crap." He stated as he ran to where he last saw them.

"Aw crap, Aw Crap," He stated when he heard the sound he had come to dread, that of empty batteries, his hand slapped down to his ammunition pouch.

"Aw crap again." He said when he found he had run out of batteries for the T.A.T.R-14's he was holding. He began running backwards, towards the way which his Unit went missing.

Then he fell over the edge of the trench.


	12. XII The Explanation Continued

Prologue

Chapter 12

The explanation continued

_**"Aw crap." He stated as he ran to where he last saw them.**_

_**"Aw crap, Aw Crap," He stated when he heard the sound he had come to dread, that of empty batteries, his hand slapped down to his ammunition pouch.**_

_**"Aw crap again." He said when he found he had run out of batteries for the T.A.T.R-14's he was holding. He began running backwards, towards the way which his Unit went missing.**_

_**Then he fell over the edge of the trench.**_

"Well look what we got here, another of the bloody cavalry falling from the sky" said an Australian O.D.S.T from inches away from him.

"Now I see why they used to call you folks Diggers." Ziizika said, with her Mexican accent almost challenging their Australian ones.

"G'Day to you too, welcome to the 31'st Australian Home defence unit." Another of the O.D.S.T said, giving her a hand up.

"Hello, how've you been 6-pack?" said Roger, shaking the hand of the O.D.S.T as '6-pack' removed his helmet, to reveal Blonde curled hair and deep set brown eyes, he looked the poster child for pretty boy.

"Same old shit as per usual eh? I see you got that promotion you were hoping for, Lieutenant-major now?" 6-pack said, shaking Rogers's hand, and nodding to the other people of his unit.

Roger looked around, saw that it was a full squad of twenty O.D.S.T.

"Hey, look at that. Big Boss has come back to sit and watch as the 31st takes care of the Charlies." Another said, removing her helmet as well, which revealed her as Silences sister. She looked a lot like him, except she was obviously female and the ponytail was replaced by a buzz cut to last the ages.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on earth" Said Silence, moving briskly towards his sister.

"Nice to see you too Joseph" she retorted, shouldering her battle rifle and cocking her head to the right.

"Jesus" said Silence, almost ripping his hair from his head, Roger Ziizika and Jackal met up with 6-pack and a couple of other people who were known by the nicknames of Roger as well.

"Hey, don't have a panic attack" she said, putting an arm around his shoulder.

"So, you're his sister? He's said so little about you." Jackal said, shaking her hand.

"You must be Jackal; he's said so much about you, did you really get caught on the loo in the middle of that uprising?" She asked, Cocking her head as she did so, which gave her the kind of innocence most of the other O.D.S.T were lacking.

"Yes and lets never speak of it again." He said while his cheeks turned a bright shade of red.

"You were supposed to stay back on the Sydney. You were supposed to be safe!" Stated Silence in frustration more than the false anger he was trying to put into his words.

"Yeah, well I'm here now so there!" She replied, as Roger came over.

"I hate to interrupt this happy family reunion but we kind of have a war to fight here. Please stop wasting time because we really have to move." He said, placing his hand on Silence's shoulder and his other on Jackal.

"Yes sir."

The twenty of the O.D.S.T and the Five M.E.R.C's moved through the tunnel system connected to the Trench.

"Where are we going?" asked Roger, curiously.

"The hole their digging, it's very precise. Whatever their looking for is the size of a basketball" Replied 6-pack,

"Uh… Okay… but why are we moving towards the hole rather than away from it?" Jackal asked, with his T.A.T.R-14 hanging loosely from its strap across his back.

"Our last orders before the EMP the covenant sent when they hit the Ionosphere, was from an ONI member by the name of Katherine. She said that we were to hook up with the Special Operatives of M.E.R.C and H.U.N.T.E.R and then proceed to guide them to the area for extraction of the Covenant's device and assist in any way we can." Silence's sister replied, putting her helmet back on.

"Well the way you can assist is by staying here" said Silence, facing his sister's hidden glare.

"Silence, Just remember, here isn't exactly safe anymore anyway. The Covenant will be coming through into the Trenches pretty damned soon. How do you reckon your sister fare on her own?" stated 6-pack, leading the group into a room, just off from the tunnel.  
"God damn- okay, fine. She can come with us" Silence said, his head hanging loosely in defeat.

The crew moved with a reinvigorated pace, making it to the torn and ripped section of the tunnel that linked up with the deep hole that the Covenant were digging.

"Jesus Christ- oh crap …" Silence said, taking his blade from it's sheathe and carving a Maltese cross into his T.A.T.R-14's. 6-pack stared at him as he did it.

"I took his name in vain. Every time I do I carve a cross into the hilt to remind me of my imperfection" He stated in reply to 6-packs confusion.

"Whoa, it's so… uh… big" Stated Jackal, as he stared down into the hole. Roger stood next to him looking for a way down.

"Another stunning observation from the stating the obvious department" Ziizika replied, kicking down a stone from the edge.

"Wait for it…" Jackal said, watching the stone fall into the blackness. After a long wait Roger turned away, and pointed towards a circular blue pad on the ground which seemed to be glowing. It had a Covenant touch panel connected.

"There" he said, pointing towards it, they headed towards it.

"Looks like someone's going to have to stay behind and activate it" Jackal said, touching the panel, and activating a yellowish field.

"Ooh pretty lights" He said, stepping back.

"Okay sis, you just volunteered" Silence said, jerking his head to flick his hair out of his face.

"Hell no, I have as much right to be here as you Joseph!" She retorted, tilting her head and shouldering her battle rifle as she gave a grin that would have tamed a wild beast.

"Maybe you two should see a counsellor or something" said Ziizika her Mexican accent giving a kind of comical tint to the sentence.

"Are you kidding? It's only Sibling Rivalries. They'll grow out of it." Retorted Jackal with a grin similar to Silence's sister only a minute ago, to which Ziizika turned away in disgust.

"Get a room you two" Roger said, slapping them both on the chest as he past them onto the pad,

"Beam me up Scotty…"


	13. XIII Taking It On Faith

Hello everyone, okay, i'm going to be honest here, if you have read this or are reading this, please dont make it like my other stories, please R&R. i dont like to write if i don't get feedback, so if you have read this please review. and a thankyou to GojiraMatthew for your review

Chapter 13

Taking it on faith

Remember that day on February,

The Day of Judgment has come

And all the bodies buried,

Will fill the holes they dug

Remember that day on February,

And there we wonder why

And all the bodies buried

Of those that day that died

The twenty third of February

Where Heavens angels wept

And Satan's soldiers were merry

For all of those who slept"

"Wait, you haven't explained how you know of the flood or of the reclaimers or anything…" Sorrung-Yaan stated, looking Roger in the eyes, watching the burning truths flow in his words as clear as day.

"I'm getting to that okay?"

"So I went into the thing, which I had assumed was either a gravity lift or something, it turned out to be an internal Tele-porter. With me followed Jackal, then 6-pack, and a couple of the O.D.S.T Defence group, followed by Ziizika then Silence. Silence got his way, his sister had to stay behind and hold the top section with three others-"

Jackal came stumbling out of the exit point of the Tele-porter, and tripped over something. It was dark inside the room they had Teleported to so everyone had their flashlights on, but the room was still banked with shadows.

6-Pack appeared out of the Tele-porter, and immediately jumped over Jackal, the O.D.S.T and Ziizika weren't so lucky.

"Everyone watch your step" Roger said, his flashlight up to his head as it moved from side to side searching for anything of interest.

"Thanks for the heads up" Jackal moaned, hobbling over to help up Ziizika who was lying underneath several of the O.D.S.T unit that tripped over Jackal.

"Bendejo" Shuffle, Shuffle

"Quiet! I heard something" Roger whispered, holding his up his hand. Silence moved to him silently, as his nickname suggested and pulled out a pair of Ka-Bar's from sheathes on his legs, Jackal and Ziizika did the same, each pulling out a blade as sharp as could be possible with a blade like theirs…

Roger screwed on a silencer.

The ODST unit all missed the actions and didn't hear Rogers warning. 6-Pack moved to the door and Roger motioned wildly for him to come back.

But it was too late, as 6-pack turned to face the ODST unit and the M.E.R.C's to shout the all clear a blue shape ripped through his torso that was unmistakable as an energy sword. As he was slowly lifted by the shape into the air by the energy sword and the cloaked Sangheili behind it he began to scream.

It wasn't a scream of pain; it wasn't a scream of fear,

It was the final sounds to leave his body as the Energy sword began to burn the skin surrounding the wound it had caused, creating a smell sickeningly like burnt ham.

The Sangheili holding the blade withdrew it suddenly and de-activated its active camouflage, revealing its silver armour trimmed with gold, the armour of an honour guard.

The ODST's began to fire their weapons at the beast, and it charged at them, drawing a second blade and tearing it through the neck of another ODST while the first had already been swung wildly at a majority of the rest of the team.

Then the Jackal's entered the room.

The ODST's all screamed in fear of death, looking for cover.

The military training they had taken was Null and void after the confusion of the teleporter, and every thing they'd learnt said that there was always cover in a firefight.

As the last ODST unit fell to the ground bleeding or dying, Jackal Tore out from here he stood in the shadows, running towards a Kig-Yar as Roger, Silence and Ziizika began firing at the Sangheili.

Jackal began to literally tear the Kig-Yar apart with his bear hands.

His superhuman strength allowing him to rip limb from limb as the purple spray of Jackal blood began to float down slowly like snow in winter, staining his clothes and the ground around him.

The Elite fired at him, but instead hit the dismembered corpse of its dead ally. The rest of the Jackals fled. And Jackal himself turned to the Elite.

The Sangheili looked deep into Jackal's Eyes.

"Stop firing, its mine" Jackal said, without breaking eye contact with the Elite.

The elite shivered; there was something inhuman in those eyes, hatred radiated from Jackal, along with Strength, both complimenting the blood that had stained his Tan uniform and made him seem even more the animal.

But the Elite had been trained to fight as the best, to preserve the honour of the Covenant.

Most would see it as an even fight. But Roger saw otherwise.

Jackal began to run at the Elite, when he was about a metre away the Elite spun and with both blades tore through the back of Jackals jacket.

Jackal jumped to the side to avoid further injury to his back and grabbed the wrist of the Sangheili, tearing it to the ground, causing the beast to loose grip on its blade, dropping it to the ground; Jackals arm then twisted the hand further, and the Elite spun over, with Jackal grabbing the Energy blade from the ground and jumping out of reach as the Elites other hand came bearing down with its blade.

The Elite got up, and regained an attack stance, but noticed one of the energy blades were in the hands of Jackal.

Jackal lunged at the Sangheili, the blade in front of him at a speed, which forced his opponent to spin and avoid the searing heat eminating from the blade.

Jackal turned and came on the attack, slashing upwards, down, left to right, each slash pushing the Elite backwards towards the wall, noticing this the Elite rolled forward dodging several brutal blows from the giant Beast the humans called Jackal, and spinning the blade around to clash in a sparkling display of plasma against Jackals blade.

Jackals foot came sweeping out, catching the Elite unawares and tripping it over, closely followed by the blade, the two prongs at the end melding into the ground and making an awful screeching sound as he tore it out to answer the attack of the elites own blade.

The elite rolled away, regaining its balance, Jackal did the same. Blood slid down from a wound on the forehead of Jackal and the Elite had a cut that reached from his forehead to his mandible.

Jackals blade flickered and discharged, the crystal giving it power completely empty.

The Sangheili bowed and discharged his blade, sliding it back into its holster,

"Honour and wit, strength and cunning, you humans are a persistent bunch hmm?" the Elite said, coming from its bow and regaining its fighting stance.

"But despite my admiration for your species, I cannot allow you to enter the holy circle"


	14. XIV Bannanas

Chapter 14

Bananas

**_ Jackals foot came sweeping out, catching the Elite unawares and tripping it over, closely followed by the blade, the two prongs at the end melding into the ground and making an awful screeching sound as he tore it out to answer the attack of the elites own blade._**

**_ The elite rolled away, regaining its balance, Jackal did the same. Blood slid down from a wound on the forehead of Jackal and the Elite had a cut that reached from his forehead to his mandible._**

**_ Jackals blade flickered and discharged, the crystal giving it power completely empty._**

**_ The Sangheili bowed and discharged his blade, sliding it back into its holster_**

Three Long-swords were spearheading the napalm team, a small force to fight a large one.

One pilot jerked the joystick hard right, barrel rolling the plane to avoid the plasma that had come flying at him from the oncoming Banshee.

"Shit, This Op is F.U.B.A.R , Red? Call HQ, we can NOT punch a hole here, I doubt a tactical nuke would do anything, let alone the napalm they've given those greenhorns back there" Said the woman piloting the adjacent Plane. An Short-sword came swiping through them, the name _The Reluctant Samurai _blazing on the side which was superimposed over a Boars head with M.E.R.C written in Stencil above it,

"YEW HEW" said whatever suicidal moron piloting the Shortie as they spun round sending three missiles smashing into the banshee's front.

Two more Short-swords came flying by with the names _God almighty_ and _Skull FKR_ written on their sides each with the same Boars head on their side.

Lights flashed inside the long-sword, " They did NOT just pass us did theya?" the pilot of the long-sword yelled over his Commlink.

"Lets show em what The Green Boars can do, Ro, you cover me, Mia, take them left side, I call centre shot, betcha I beat my record" said the pilot of _The Reluctant Samurai _firing the main guns and spraying an oncoming crew of Anti Air troops with 50 calibre bullets and dodging a banshee, while tearing up to 500 ft from the ground.

"50 say's otherwise Sarah" Said Roman, who was now identified as the pilot of _God Almighty_.

"Dude, their stealing our kills" Said the woman in the Long-sword. As she dodged even more plasma and fuel rod shots

"Cmon, People, keep it together, give them some more cover god-damn-it"

Under ground the fight between Jackal and the Elite had come hand to hand.

Jackal elbowed the elite in the Face, but the Sangheili Caught his elbow, and spun him around so he was facing away from it.

Jackal tried to get out of the grip but couldn't. The Elite was surprised however when the back of Jackals head came smashing into its forehead, dazed, he was even more surprised to find he was thrown over the head of Jackal, crashing into the ground, and letting go of Jackals arm.

The elite rolled away, covering up with a double hoofed kick aimed at Jackals chest.

Jackal didn't have time to dodge, and was sent stumbling backwards by the force of the Elites kick, falling to the ground several metres from the Elite. The Elite snapped back up and resumed its fighting position.

"That hurt" Jackal stated, getting back to his feet and cracking his neck to relieve the whiplash. The armour of the elite Flickered, and the gold trimmings stopped glowing. Jackal held up a small device about the size of a CD, it was obviously from the Elites armour. He dropped it on the ground.

_The Reluctant Samurai _Made some aerial acrobatics that seemed to defy reality, barrel rolls, loop the loops, dodges, spins and drops, the vehicle flew at over 500 miles an hour and every pilot knows not to stress the inertial dampeners to that point. But by some miracle the ship was holding together.

"Yo Ro, you take _God Almighty _to take out that- Whoa" _The Reluctant Samurai _Banked up missing a slip space rupture by inches.

A Covenant Cruiser slid out gracefully, and its hanger bays opened without a sound.

"Mia, Ro, you know the drill, hey flyboys, you wanna be like us? Okay, I need two of you to go cover my rear, the other follow us, give me cover. Lets pump it up" the Long-swords did as she said, banking hard to reach their areas.

Two fighters and a dozen banshees came at them directly, Sarah felt as something crunched from underneath her, one of the Long-swords had been blown away and crashed into her as it began to loose height.

The Long-swords did a loop the loop, releasing a bomb each midway into the sky.

One of which caught a fighter, basically disintegrating the cockpit, the other missed and dropped to the ground harmlessly. The remaining fighter spun around, watching as its opponent flew past.

It made time by destroying another of the Long-swords with a fuel rod shot.

Romans Short-Sword caught a fleck of plasma on his right wing, the lights inside began to flicker red,

"I'm damaged. Sorry Sarah, I have to repair, Green Boar three out" Sarah received the communication, and swore under her breath. They had to blow this big ship up; otherwise the UNSC personnel on the ground would be fighting their way around their own corpses.

"Thanks Ro, good luck, Green Boar six out" Sarah replied, dodging more plasma.

"So what's the plan? " Asked the remaining Long-sword, banking again to avoid more plasma and fuel rods.

"Hey Sarah, have you seen that movie star wars? " Asked Mia, sending some missiles at an turret.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking? " Asked Sarah.

"That's bananas in pyjamas" Replied Mia dropping her napalm into one of the hangers.


	15. XV Heretic

Chapter 15

Heretic

**_"You're Sentinels, haven't you ever wondered why they refer to humans as the Reclaimers? And why there is some technology that couldn't be activated with four fingers?" Roger said calmly, the disbelief burning on the Sangheili's face._**

**_"How did you know that?" Sorrung-Yaan asked. Roger smiled before replying._**

**_"Same way as I know about the flood, I asked the right… person."_**

The first streaks of dawn peered over the semi-glassed planet, shining in the few windows that remained everlasting, while small animals ran through the streets intent on complete whatever job they had to do.

Somewhere in the centre of the city there were several humans and an Elite.

Sarah was walking alone through the corridor like streets, searching for anything of interest. She heard a rustle, like a cat in the grass, with one fluid move she had removed both katana' out of their sheathes and spun to face whatever threat opposed her. She caught a glimmer of something blue out of the corner of her eye but when she turned to it, it disappeared.

She caught another glimmer, she spun, striking with the butt of her left katana, and felt something connect.

"Ow, hey that hurt" Said Alexia, deactivating the active camouflage she had removed from Sorrung-Yaan's armour.

"Neat, just imagine the payday we'll get for something like that" Replied Sarah unsympathetically, Alexia simply rubbed her forehead where Sarah had hit her.

"Not likely, I cont figure how to recharge it, its weird, those Sangheili seem to have unlimited charge, but this device only lasts five seconds before it runs out, then you have to wait an hour. Otherwise it completely discharges" Alexia threw the device on the ground.

"How do you know that?" Asked Sarah, sheathing her Katana' in their selected areas.

"The alien told me"

Roger untied the bonds on Sorrung-Yaan's hands and feet.

"You have not explained how you know Human" Sorrung-Yaan mentioned.

"I'm letting you free, isn't that enough? I mean honestly, you could kill us now that you're untied, but I'm trusting you enough to… oh my god I'm trusting a covenant" Roger exclaimed, butting his hand on his head.

"And besides, we haven't heard your side yet…"

Sorrung-Yaan was a heretic at heart. He did not really believe in the great journey, and he didn't believe the humans were as weak as it was said they were. Time after time he had watched as the humans proved they would not leave quietly.

Despite their limited technology, the humans had made a bigger dent than most other civilisations they had conquered.

Even more than the Lekgolo had. And they had sheer strength and size on their side, so what did the humans have that made them so…

Sorrung-Yaan didn't know what they had, and wasn't particularly pleased wen he was told to report to the shipmaster. It could only be one thing where humans were involved.

He casually walked through the dimly lit corridors, and entered the bridge.

"You called for me shipmaster?" Sorrung Yaan said, it was more of a statement than a question.

"Do you know why we are fighting the humans?" asked the ship master, turning in his hovering chair to face him, he motioned to the honour guards at the doorway to leave, and they obeyed without question, Sorrung-Yaan stared blankly at the commander, as if there was no authority the shipmaster had at all.

"It is not my place to question such as the prophets will" Sorrung-Yaan replied, standing upright and returning the shipmaster's glare.

"THEN WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO THINK YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THE ALMIGHTY PROPHETS?!" The Shipmaster yelled, almost falling from his hover chair in the sharp and threatening motions he threw at Sorrung-Yaan.

"I do no such thing sir" Sorrung-Yaan stated truthfully without breaking eye contact with his superior.

"You will be dropped onto the planet we recently captured in the Sara system. There you will wait for the arrival of Fleet commander Bulak-Voor, you will not be granted a transport away by anyone else but Bulak or you will be executed on sight." The shipmaster said, almost grinning. Sorrung-Yaan knew why. Bulak-Voor was known to avoid work. What was really happening was he was being abandoned on an alien world until he either found a way home and got executed or proved himself worthy.

"And so I was dropped on this forsaken planet and abandoned by my people" Sorrung-Yaan said, his head hanging low, he obviously missed his people. Roger stared at him as he finished his story, watching as his alien figure began to droop into an almost saddened pose.

"How long have you been stranded here?" Roger asked, Sorrung-Yaan Thought.

"Approximately two of your earth years" Sorrung said blankly.

ODST troops always thought they were a cut above the average UNSC marine,

They were always volunteers, people who chose to crash land into heavy fire and clear the way for the rest.

Most were cocky, and each had a life expectancy of thirty two seconds after breaking the atmosphere of a planet.

ODST stood for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, and Captain Jack Clarke stood in his drop pod, watching the indicators flash green, which meant it was stable, and meant he had a higher chance of surviving more than the thirty two seconds.

He prayed silently that his team made it down in one piece, and closed his purple eyes for a second to think.

His unit was briefed on the areas layouts, and a Dumb A.I was implanted into his helmet. Unlike the 'Smart' A.I constructs, a Dumb A.I was pretty useless, it couldn't hack Covenant technology, it couldn't appear as a hologram, and it couldn't layout tactical data. Its only function was to guide Jack and his team to the area where they were supposed to land, and to send information through an encrypted channel back to their orbiting Frigate _Maracaibo_, which was where his platoon had been dropped from.

He remembered the name the planet had been given, Nagasaki II.

Why had the colonists named a planet after a city that was obliterated by the first nuclear bombs?

He didn't know, he didn't care, all he wanted was to land and survive the mission without a hitch.

He got his first wish three seconds later, when his pod crashed onto the bleak snowy hillside of an icy landscape.

It was a miracle he hit the hill and not the ice. If he'd done that one of two things would have happened:

1. His Drop Pod would have crumpled, killing him instantly,

2. His Drop Pod would have crashed through the ice into the underlying lake and he would have slowly drowned.

The plate covering him burst open, smashing a curious Grunt in front of him away in the way only twelve tonnes of steel travelling at fifty miles an hour can do.

He tore his Battle rifle from its hold to his left, and charged into the fray, tearing down the hill towards a large covenant structure that lay in the centre of the area, while leading his Unit of twenty Identical ODST personnel towards the relatively light Covenant resistance.

With everyone firing randomly, no one knew who killed what, but everyone cried with every ODST that fell, and grinned with every Covenant that joined the fallen.

Jack watched to the North east, a spectacular display of cunning as dozens of UNSC Long-Sword's bombed the area ahead with as much Napalm as each could carry. The orange glow that the fires gave off would have almost have been pretty if not for the smell of methane and burning meat, the fires didn't burn so well, instead fizzing and melting the ice until it caused a landslide from the hills adjacent.

Jack watched as Beta squad, which numbered eight took positions to defend Alpha, Gamma and Jacks own Delta squads as they pushed forward towards the structure.

He then watched as the squad was ironically crushed by a Scarab tank that literally landed on top of them.

He heard himself shout the order for concentrated fire, and he saw himself begin to fire at one of its legs, but it was as if he was detached from the situation, not even there so to speak.

One particular male in his squad was repeatedly calling to God, calling for them so passionately, it was as if the guy actually thought God would hear him over the radio, Fat chance of that happening.

Jack sidestepped a Banshee that was crash-landing after losing both Anti-Gravity Pods on either side. And felt the shockwave it made when it exploded in the hill he'd been standing on fifteen seconds ago.

The remaining other squads of Alpha and Gamma had almost made it to the structure, Delta moved closely behind, with Jack running backwards, keeping an eye on the Scarab, who was at that moment being bombarded by the combined fire of the remaining Hornets and the Long-Swords.

He spun around when he heard Alpha begin to fire upon two hunter's that had emerged from the structure, and watched as Gamma dropped to the ground to avoid losing the upper halves of their bodies to the Fuel Rod Guns mounted on the Hunter's arms.

"OPEN FIRE" someone from Gamma screamed, probably the leader, Jacks eyes were wide with fear, his brain flooded with adrenaline, and his body simply locked up.

Frozen with fear at the worst possible moment, with two heavily armed gigantic aliens charging towards him, all he could do was watch as they took lumbering step after lumbering step towards him.

Somehow he regained control of himself, or rather regained control of his trigger finger and began firing randomly at the armoured beasts.

One of his shots hit one of the Hunter's in their unprotected stomach sending it crashing to the ground just behind the other, which was still charging, unfazed at the loss of it's companion.

Then he heard the unmistakable click that spelt out death in one of the most gruesome ways imaginable.

Jacks life flashed before his eyes in less that a second and it angered him that it had gone so quick.

But in that second, his instincts took over, and he slid under the Hunter, grabbing onto one of its back-spokes began to thrash at the only other unprotected area within reach in a blind rage, using the butt of his Rifle, he managed to make its orange blood stain the ice which had been a similar colour not so long ago due to the Napalm. He flung himself from the dying Hunter into the snow and landed. He hit the ground just as the Hunter collapsed, staining the surrounding snow with more of its orangey blood.

Unsurprisingly, the only sentences that Jack could formulate after his stunt, as he was given a hand up by one of his fellow marines were the words "I think I just got whiplash".


	16. XVI Jack?

Chapter 16

Jack?

**_But in that second, his instincts took over, and he slid under the Hunter, grabbing onto one of its back-spokes began to thrash at the only other unprotected area within reach in a blind rage, using the butt of his Rifle, he managed to make its orange blood stain the ice which had been a similar colour not so long ago due to the Napalm. He flung himself from the dying Hunter into the snow and landed. He hit the ground just as the Hunter collapsed, staining the surrounding snow with more of its orangey blood._**

**_ Unsurprisingly, the only sentences that Jack could formulate after his stunt, as he was given a hand up by one of his fellow marines were the words "I think I just got whiplash"._**

Jack's unit had survived the incident on Nagasaki II, and were picked up four hours later after the subsequent battles by the orbiting Frigate _Maracaibo _for some well deserved day of R&R on a nearby UNSC Outpost/Docking station, several UNSC Marines units were sent as their replacements a bunch of greenhorns the lot of them, fresh from boot camp right to the slaughter, Jack caught himself wondering if he had any chance to see any one them again.

It was well known that they had struck the golden horse shoe of luck with the Scarab, and the Hunter just tipped it over the edge, but they were each congratulated anyway as no one wanted to point this out lest they were on the receiving end of an ODST fist.

Jack himself caught himself getting so desperate for something new to do that he was raiding the library for data disks.

He was picking up a particularly interesting one labelled Government Conspiracy theories of 2007, when he saw another member of his Squad, Catalina who was browsing through a Vid-Panel for a decent book to download.

He called out to her and she smiled back with a salute thrown in at the last minute, which was obviously more of a joke than an actual salute.

"Hey captain whiplash, what's up?" she called, her head tilting in an odd position, which gave her the sense of innocence most UNSC personnel lacked for obvious reasons, dark hair now flowing down ever so gracefully, Jack immediately formed a crush on her.

After a brief conversation about nothing in particular they both headed towards the Mess hall for lunch, although the Mess hall was crowded to the point of lunacy and noisy they still managed to hold a conversation between each other about Earth and what sight's they hoped to see there.

After the lunch together they went their separate ways and Jack found himself with even less stuff to do and even worse, he'd spent 52.25 on lunch for him and Catalina.

Lunch normally cost him only 5.00.

After an unusual period of time where he would go to his bed and get back up repeatedly he finally managed to get something close to a restless sleep.

Catalina on the other hand had returned to the library and now had three books and a data disk to keep her occupied throughout the following night. The Data disk seemed pretty interesting,

It was labelled Government Conspiracy theories of 2007.

Jack woke to the call of nature at 0530 EST (Earth standard time) and emptied his bladder in the toilet block.

He then went through his normal R&R morning routine, He got into his ODST grey Tank top, slid on a pair of track pants and jogged around the ship.

Everything was back to normal, for now anyway, and he wanted to keep it that way until the R&R time ran out at 0800 EST.

He jogged for an hour then cleaned his weapons, which took a further half hour.

Then took a short cold shower, where he contemplated what to do with his remaining forty minutes.

In the end he spent the remaining time suiting up before meeting with his superiors in the Debriefing room nearby.

As he entered the room he suddenly knew something was wrong. His superiors were smiling, as if to put on a happy face no matter the outcome.

The second he sat down he found out why.

"You're being re-assigned" said one of the superiors, with a grin that stretched from cheek to cheek.

"What about the debriefing?" Jack enquired an almost desperate tone in his voice.

"It has already been taken care of; your team has provided all the information we needed in that regard" The man replied,

It was unusual for any superior officer to cancel a debriefing indefinitely, especially for something like this.

Jack caught himself wondering where he'd been stationed, and then he noticed the call in sheet next to the door,

350 UNSC marines and 150 ODST personnel re-stationed, it also labelled their serial number, their name, and the area they were stationed to. As he watched, another ODST was counted in, bringing the tally up to 151 ODST.

"That would have been me" Jack said aloud.

He went to his room to collect his things and noticed a Vid-Panel stuck to the door, it read:

UNSC Marine

Serial #92884

ODST Jack Radisson Clarke

_/ The following Document is classified, and is deniable by any or all major countries of the UNSC._

_/_

_/_

_/_

_Project Return to Sender_

_This mission is designated Medium Risk_

Dear Mr. Clarke,

Approximately two weeks and seventy two hours ago two elite teams were lost somewhere in the Sara system. As a final resort to retrieve the two units you have been chosen to lead a rescue. Your previous employment in the unit M.E.R.C Grey-Fox and your wish to be classified un-associated with the project will be held only upon success of this mission.

We apologise for any problems caused by this order.

_ The Mission if accepted is to either _

_a) __Bring the two units back alive_

_b) __Destroy any proof of their existence if they are dead_

_ Signed Katharine Mallard _

_/_

_/_

_/_

_ End Transmit _

Jack stared at the transmit for a moment. He remembered his days in M.E.R.C, back when he was known as Drac, and when his lover Dog had been alive.

_Dog fell silently, blood pouring from a wound in her chest as the energy sword was ripped from the hand of the Sangheili by Drac who died second, as he jumped over the Semi-melted sandbags which had been protecting him, running towards Dogs fleeing Murderer._


	17. XVII JackDrac

Chapter 17

Jack/Drac

**_Jack stared at the transmit for a moment. He remembered his days in M.E.R.C, back when he was known as Drac, and when his lover Dog had been alive._**

**_Dog fell silently, blood pouring from a wound in her chest as the energy sword was ripped from the hand of the Sangheili by Drac who died second, as he jumped over the Semi-melted sandbags which had been protecting him, running towards Dogs fleeing Murderer._**

Jack, or Drac as he used to be known shook his head, a wave of memories flooded his brain, memories of being Drac.

_"How did they know"_ He asked himself, glancing from the Screen of his PDA to the distant hanger bay to take the Short-Sword he had been allocated back two years ago when he was a member of Green-Boar.

He remembered how he didn't die, although he wished he had.

Drac lay on the ground. His shoulder was burning. And he couldn't move. He watched as the other M.E.R.C's destroyed a wraith and moved to their next rally point, abandoning him and Dog, Dog was coughing up blood, and it was obvious she was dying. Dog died silently, in a quiet little corner of the galaxy as was the duty of all marines. He looked back to the M.E.R.C's as they slid into the distance.

They thought he and Dog were dead. They were only half right.

Gradually, an hour after he had been shot, his body started to heal its self, the augmentations given to him on the first day as a M.E.R.C doing their work.

Another hour passed and it became dark. He was strong enough to stand, but he couldn't anyway.

"What's the point" he asked himself out loud.

A medic came sliding over to him holding a med pack in her hands. In the darkness he mistook her for Dog, and answered her questions without second thought, then slid into unconsciousness.

When he woke again he was in an infirmary, back on the ship _Maracaibo_in deep orbit around the planet he had almost died on.

From there he changed his name to Jack, because it was similar to his nick name and easy to remember, and asked to be forgotten as A M.E.R.C when the organisation was disbanded.

He caught hold of himself from his daydreams when he walked into the door. His Short Sword had been kept in a separate hanger in the _Maracaibo_since the incident.

He punched in his access code and entered into the dark hanger bay. As he entered the lights fizzed back into life.

And he stared at his Shortie, remembering how much he had loved that ship.

He continued to stare at it for quite some time, until he said, with heartfelt passion "And thus it comes full circle."

Almost two weeks had passed on the planet; Roger was the unofficial leader of the combined groups. It turned out that the H.U.N.T.E.R unit had the same mission as them, to find the corporal and his Neural Lace. When they found the M.E.R.C ship they fired on it because it was classified a stolen vessel.

Everyone was in the right place at the wrong time, and now they were all stranded here on the Class D planet with the faint hope that help would arrive.

Sarah and Jackal were practicing with her blades, Sorrung-Yaan was talking to Roger and Roman, Ziizika was on patrol with Alexia.

Sarah's blade came down then in the swiftest of motions came back up, while her foot lashed out, knocking Jackal onto the ground.

"SHIT" he exclaimed, as Sarah held a hand out to the fallen muscle man, she glared at him and withdrew her hand, letting him get back up on his own.

"No need to be rude" she said, sheathing her blade.

"No… I just realised we lost two million dollars when that Alien blew up our Sword" Jackal said, Sarah turned to him and laughed.

"Let's go find Roman, last I checked he found a few crates of Jim Bean stashed somewhere" Sarah said, motioning to the three figures sitting in the middle of the camp.

"Good morning sunshine, the world say's hello" an annoying voice said, as its owner tapped on the glass of the Cryostasis Tube in which Jack was currently residing.

"Wake up Mr. Sleepy head, welcome to your worst nightmare" The annoying voice continued, and Jack almost would have hit the guy had it not been for the glass in front of him, and doing so would probably get him court martialled.

"Bugger off, I'm trying to get some sleep" he replied to the person trying to wake him up.

"Is that any way to talk to your superiors?" the annoying voice replied,

"Bugger off, sir… I'm trying to get some sleep" said Jack as he finally got up, he watched as the 6 ft 6 man in the High classed Marine uniform began to chuckle.

He looks Normal someone said as Jacks cold feet touched the ground, he cracked his neck and relieved the whiplash he was still getting over.

everything checks out, your good to go

Jack flexed his muscles and asked how long he'd been out

"Only a couple of days follow me" the reply came as the High classed Marine led Jack out of the Shortie and into the military docking yard.

All around him were the vibrant colours of the cityscape, the sounds of vehicles driving to and fro, people talking and other daily activities could be heard from the tarmac of the old runway which was lined with hundreds of Long-swords, Short-Swords, Hornets, and all manors of military aircraft that spanned as far as the eye could see. And he knew then that something big was going to happen, and that he would be smack bang in the middle of it again.

"Now before you get your upgraded armaments here in Chi-Ceti4-" Superior said, moving around Drac and placing his hand on Drac's shoulder then continuing his sentence,

"-There's some paperwork I need you to sign for me…" Jack/Drac looked at him blankly and said three words that spelled the exact opposite of what he was feeling,

"Sounds like fun…"


	18. XVIII Guarding of honour

Chapter 18

Guarding of honour

⌠-There▓s some paperwork I need you to sign for me┘■ Jack/Drac looked at him blankly and said three words that spelled the exact opposite of what he was feeling,  
⌠Sounds like fun┘■

Jack pulled on his ODST Armour, which had been modified and given something between a dumb and a smart A.I, Grabbed his now silenced weaponry and attached all of his ammunition to its holsters.  
The only thing he hadn▓t had upgraded or replaced was his Alabama Slammer combat knife, which had been passed down generation after generation in his family, He had this sheathed in a hidden place on his boot.  
⌠A.I, What are my current objectives and what is the fastest way to them?■ Drac asked while cracking his neck. ⌠Processing . . . Complete, Current ob- object- objective receive new vehicle from hanger bay th- thr- three- four- seven.■ The artificial intelligence replied, stuttering some of the words.  
⌠So┘ you▓re supposed to be my Intelligent AI right?■ Drac said, following his NAV points as they were pointed to him by the A.I.  
⌠Ca- Caaa- Call me Charlie■ Replied the A.I as they reached the Hanger bay with the numbers 3-4-7 written in bold print.  
⌠Shut up A.I■ Said Drac, inspecting the Albatross he had been given.  
⌠What a piece of Faecal matter■ Charlie said, reflecting the thoughts of his host.  
⌠Shut up, Shut up, and shut up!■ Drac said, getting annoyed. He knew only he could hear the voice and to anyone coming in he would look rather crazy but still he yelled curse after curse at his A.I. now known as Charlie. He finally calmed down enough to enter his ▒New▓ ship; inside was more than just a vehicle bay, the area had been converted into a small portable HQ and had a brig, a weapons storage bay and on top of all that three Cryostasis tubes lined on the opposite wall, complimenting the chairs bolted to the sides of them. It looked like a high tech lounge with bars.  
⌠It looks even worse on the ins- insi- inside■ Charlie responded to the sights.  
⌠I▓m not even going to bother to telling you to shut the frag up■ Replied Drac, smacking his head with a gloved hand.

***

Silence was trying to teach Sorrung-Yaan how to play poker. Ziizika, Alexia, Sarah and Roman were all passed out from way too much whiskey (yes even a MERC can get drunk┘ although it takes a fair bit of booze to do so) and Roger was on sentry. Boo-Boo was practicing knife tricks that Roger had begun teaching her and Jackal was on sentry, which was another way of saying he was asleep.  
Sorrung-Yaan stretched his limbs, eyeing Roger and searching for a gap in his steady composure, but finding nothing behind the calm eyes of his new friend.  
⌠What happened to you and your team when the Sangheili and Jackal were fighting? And what is this Banana in pyjama▓s you were telling me about? Are they a formidable fighter? They sound like they are meant to strike fear into someone▓s hearts■ Sorrung asked.  
⌠Your like a kid, read me a story, read me a story, and the only people that they scare are little children■ Roger replied, stifling a laugh.

Sarah▓s ship was spiralling towards the opening hanger bay in zigzag motions tearing past enemy fire and forces, the covenant attempted to hit her with everything they had, but it was like grasping smoke. The Reluctant Samurai crashed into the hanger, disembodying a Grunt who was working on one of the enemy fighters.  
Smoke billowed from the sliding craft and the roof hatch snapped open for Sarah to jump out, Katana in hand before the ship had come to a stop. She managed to land on the metallic surface of a Banshee with her Katana standing upright in the cockpit.  
She wrenched the blade from the hole it had made and back flipped off of the vehicle before it exploded, just as the second Short-Sword slammed into the hanger bay, it slid to a halt inches from the opposite wall and out popped the Happy-Go-Lucky form of Mia grinning, she noticed the mess Sarah had made and said bluntly ⌠Show off!■

Jackal and the Elite struggled for some time, Jackal would hit the Sangheili and it would hit back. Jackal finally got a grapple hold on the Elites neck and spinning round managed to run it towards a bar sticking from the ground, screaming as he charged the Elite closer to it▓s death, the Elite threw Jackal over his shoulder and placed its hoof on his neck.  
⌠You fight well human, you may enter┘ I have no quarrel with you■ He removed his hoof from Jackals neck and extended a four fingered hand.  
Jackal looked at him as if he▓d been stung.  
⌠It is rare that a Sangheili will offer you their hand, I urge you to see reason beyond your primal state■ The elite said, holding his position.  
Jackal took it, standing up with the help of the Sangheili, then limped over to his empty gun and holstered it on his back; his quarrel was with the jackals, not the Sangheili.  
All four moved through the doorway which the elite led them to, their weapons aimed at both him and their surroundings.  
⌠I believe you seek the oracle, I cannot let you enter alive-■ the Sangheili▓s speech was cut short by the sound of Ziizika▓s Battle rifle safety clicking off,  
⌠-So I ask you to make me fall unconscious, so that I may keep some glimmer of-■ Before he could finish the sentence, Jackal had clubbed him over the back of the head with his own Battle rifle, Ziizika gave him a weird look.  
⌠He asked┘ besides I have wanted to do that since I saw him■ Silence walked up to the unconscious frame of the sagely, uttered a small prayer and walked through the door.  
⌠This has been the most unusual day,■ said Roger sliding past the 7ft lizard like beast, followed by Ziizika, and finally Jackal followed.  
Once all four of them were in the room, the door slid shut, and became dark. Roger moved over to the only part of the room with light, it was a holo-panel; he abruptly started using the touch interface eventually coming up with some technical data,  
⌠Z, chuck us a GigaTerabyte flash drive■ Silence said, walking past Roger and kicking open a compartment full of glowing purple crystals ⌠I thought you had them■ Ziizika replied shooting him a glare that could kill, turning her normally pretty face into a grotesque scowl.  
⌠Aw crap■ replied Silence ⌠- I left them on the Maracaibo■

Chapter 19 


	19. IXX I Got’s a booboo

Chapter 19 I Got▓s a boo-boo

Sorrung-Yaan glared at Roger as his former enemy began to chuckle, he didn▓t know why but the hollow laughter that escaped this small mans frame sent a chill down his spine.  
⌠I still say that the name Banana▓s in Pyjama▓s should strike fear in all of the races of the universe. What could be worse than a ten foot tall beast in a yellow suit constantly followed by similarly brutish looking things that buy blunt objects from a giant rat?■ Sorrung-Yaan finished, for some reason unknown to Sorrung this caused Roger to begin to hoot with laughter.  
Eventually when he had calmed himself he continued his story┘

Jackal blinked, ⌠you left them-■ he made hand motions Roger guessed was his sorry excuse for sign language, ⌠-on the ship?■ Silence was quiet, so Ziizika▓s heavy Mexican accent answered Jackals question, ⌠If I remember correctly it was your job to make sure that everyone had their gear bendejo!■ Roger turned his head to Jackal waiting for a response.  
Jackal was less than expected as per usual.  
⌠Don▓t Bende- Oh me■ Jackal retorted.  
⌠Processing■ said a random voice.  
⌠Don▓t process me either■ Jackal said, staring at the blue glowing ball behind Ziizika for a few seconds.  
⌠-oh, who are you?■

Meanwhile, Sarah and Mia were brainstorming, ⌠We could set up an ANFO bomb up in the bridge■ said Sarah pleadingly to Mia who sat cross legged on what was left of The Reluctant Samurai ⌠Nah, we don▓t have any fertilizer or kerosene, we could probably make a couple of half Molotov cocktails if we syphoned gas from the shorties, give them a taste of good old 18th century Russia, but we don▓t have any bottles to put them in┘■ Retorted Sarah with a yawn, they had been sitting in the hanger for over a half hour coming up with ways to get off or blow up the Covenant burner.  
⌠I guess that▓s it then, we only have my M6D and your katana to get through god knows how many jihad-ding aliens.■ Mia said, standing up and moving towards a door.  
⌠They don▓t stand a chance■

⌠Greetings, I am 4 1 2 Detrimental opposition, I am the monitor of instillation 07■ said the glowing blue orb as it zipped by Ziizika▓s head, she raised her T.A.T.R-14, Roger had already done the same.  
⌠You▓re what, with the whom of the, what now?■ asked Jackal, stumbling backwards as 412 zoomed up to face him, Jackal looked deep into it▓s┘ eye.  
⌠Its┘ he▓s┘ they▓re┘ um┘ guys? Ouch!■ Jackal stammered as he was tapped by the blue orb that began to light up the wall behind him with readouts in an unknown language whilst humming to itself.  
⌠Wow┘ a Covenant AI■ said Silence poking it on the back, only to receive a small zap.  
⌠Not Covenant. Forerunner■ said Roger.

⌠And it told us what whatever we asked, after that we came out the way we came back in and up the elevator to find the battle almost over┘ in the Covenant▓s favour of course.■ Roger ended, Sarah popped over behind Roger and with two hands on either shoulder she stated.  
⌠And I blew up a burner with ol▓ Betsy here■ she said, tapping the katana at her waist and smiling.  
⌠If you have time later perhaps you will tell me about that. And what did you do with 412?■ asked Sorrung-Yaan, roger looked at him and said calmly ⌠Blew it up┘ ⌠it is so and nothing in this world can change it┘■ said Sorrung-Yaan stretching his alien body and rolling over to sleep.

Dawn arrived, along with hangovers and coffee, all across the campground did lay the remnants of the previous night, broken vodka bottles, whiskey bottles, shot glasses, pints and a variety of other alcohol related pieces that shone in the brightening daylight.  
Jackal groaned as he tried to stand, only to topple over. Roman was cleaning his electronic blue eye in a bucket and Roger was doing the dishes. Ziizika and company were playing War with the mangled set of cards.  
⌠Hit me,■ Boo-Boo said, throwing down a card, Ziizika groaned,  
⌠If you do that one more time I really will hit you┘■ Ziizika replied,  
⌠Go fish?■ Boo-Boo replied, dropping her cards to reveal two of each card.  
⌠Ai Karumba Senorita■ yelled Ziizika, sliding past the embarrassed back of one Denise Vu.  
A crack sounded out, the resounding low pitch kapow like sound of a .223 rifle hung in the air, and a small red stain began to appear on the right shoulder of Boo-Boo. She coughed a small feeble thing almost as violent as the thing that had caused it.  
⌠What▓d you hit me for?■ asked Boo-Boo, a smile appearing on her face as her sight began to dim, the normal glow that hung around her Asian features fading to a deathly pale.  
Faster than most people could see, Roger had a T.A.T.R-14 in his hands on full auto sending blue shots of directed plasma scorching their way towards the area of their attacker, but despite his superhuman speed he was too late, they had already fled.  
He turned his attention to Ziizika and crew then, Ziizika herself was opening a tampon (the closest thing to a bandage in possession) and plugging it into the hole that the sniper had made to which It fit sickeningly well. Roger blankly glanced her way and began giving orders,  
⌠Alexia, Jackal, you▓re with me, pack light. Sarah, Ziizika, Silence try to keep her alive, Roman, set up perimeter for them then join us okay? Sorrung, you still have your active camo? Good, you on reconnaissance■ everyone complied, no one complained┘ Roger had seniority and experience with taking command, but when you were in the army for almost fifty years if you count Cryostasis you learn a few tricks. 


End file.
